MacOS Tablet PC prototype spotted??

dave marshdave marsh
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Saw this today at Rob Bushway's Tablet PC site:



http://robbushway.blogspot.com/2005/...sightings.html



He claims to have seen a MacOS X-based tablet and actually used it for a few minutes. Has anyone else seen/heard anything, or is this just more technology that Apple's built to test internally as proof of concept?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 85
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I don't give this random blogger much credibility on this, but now that I think about it, things may start lining up a bit. I doubt all Steve would show at the All Things Digital conference is iTunes 4.9 with PodCasting features. I'm sure that was shown, but perhaps in the backroom a tablet with some intel hardware was shown under numerous NDAs to certain people.



    This would explain the sudden intel processor articles. And the iTunes 4.9 is a great smoke screen for all this other stuff.



    Just a thought.
  • Reply 2 of 85
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    I'm telling you guys: If anybody can do a tablet right it's Apple. A lot of people thought the iPod would fail when it was released out of right field a few years ago and look what happened.



    I can see Apple saying to other tablet manufacturers, "we want to show you how to REALLY do a tablet right."
  • Reply 3 of 85
    cubistcubist Posts: 954member
    This is a murky report at best, but it does mention Intel only in the context of having produced a power-saving variant of the PPC. Does Intel have a license to produce PowerPCs? (THT, Programmer?)



    Emulating PPC instructions with an x86 would be far too slow to be usable, besides consuming huge amounts of power. (Look into the reviews of PearPC.) Cross-compiling is no good - users would have to buy all their software over again, and I, for one, ain't gonna.
  • Reply 4 of 85
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cubist

    This is a murky report at best, but it does mention Intel only in the context of having produced a power-saving variant of the PPC. Does Intel have a license to produce PowerPCs? (THT, Programmer?)



    Emulating PPC instructions with an x86 would be far too slow to be usable, besides consuming huge amounts of power. (Look into the reviews of PearPC.) Cross-compiling is no good - users would have to buy all their software over again, and I, for one, ain't gonna.



    why cross compile?



    http://www.transitives.com/technology.htm



    All the way back to 2001....

    http://www.macworld.com/news/2001/10...tive/index.php



    and I love the 'Customer' link at Transitive (so Apple-ish)

    " We anticipate that a second computer company will deploy products enabled by our technology in early 2005 and that others will deploy QuickTransit before the end of the year."





    If I hear 'Dynamite' at WWDC...weeee!
  • Reply 5 of 85
    rhumgodrhumgod Posts: 1,289member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Dave Marsh

    Saw this today at Rob Bushway's Tablet PC site:



    He claims to have seen a MacOS X-based tablet and actually used it for a few minutes.



    Well, his source claims to have seen it. So it's the pet-donkey-of-a-friend-of-a-friends-girlfriends-cousin-in-law.
  • Reply 6 of 85
    mikenapmikenap Posts: 94member
    seems like a tablet mac could be used as a "video ipod" or the long awaited Remote for controling the digital home?
  • Reply 7 of 85
    not unlike myselfnot unlike myself Posts: 2,037member
    Post your favorite mockup! (or actual )
  • Reply 8 of 85
    whiterabbitwhiterabbit Posts: 208member
    They're gonna need to have a lot of new software for this to be a really killer device. It needs to be fully operatable without a keyboard (not a virtual keypad, but zero keyboard.)



    One thing I just though of would be something that can display a form, from a PDF or scanned in or whatever, and you can just write on top of it and it will fill in the form as it recognizes the handwriting. And then it could send the data into a database.
  • Reply 9 of 85
    not unlike myselfnot unlike myself Posts: 2,037member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by WhiteRabbit

    One thing I just though of would be something that can display a form, from a PDF or scanned in or whatever, and you can just write on top of it and it will fill in the form as it recognizes the handwriting. And then it could send the data into a database.



    Like a Newton? We still use them for 'field surveys' in Epcot.
  • Reply 10 of 85
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Isn't ARM now a part of Intel? Could this, alogng with the recent Intel rumours be connected? If Apple was developing a new tablet or pda, and was looking at ARM chips, couldn't that hve started all the OSX on Intel rumours?
  • Reply 11 of 85
    yankeedoodleyankeedoodle Posts: 63member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Tulkas

    Isn't ARM now a part of Intel? Could this, alogng with the recent Intel rumours be connected? If Apple was developing a new tablet or pda, and was looking at ARM chips, couldn't that hve started all the OSX on Intel rumours?





    What if...



    ... all those Intel boxes in Apple's back yard are just Intel's home delivery drivers bringing round a new slew of chips for Wireless USB? Not a switch in processor technologies, but a switch in peripheral concepts -- including but not limited to a switch from FireWire to new USB standards... Go, think!
  • Reply 12 of 85
    rongoldrongold Posts: 302member
    I feel like I always have to spell everything out.



    Now, don't take this as some inside source, I am admitting this much right off the bat...



    but, don't you think it's possible that Intel's new wiMax chip that is now in production is what is at the heart of these discussions. AND, don't you think this will essentially be at the heart of a new remote/tablet/thin-client device from Apple. I mean, how else could you get G5 power and G5 capabilities into such a small device. You have your big desktop machine do the work and then broadcast it to the dummy-terminal, errr, remote or whatever they will bill this thing as.



    I have been talking about this thing for a year at places like:



    http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...04&#post380704



    http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=54669



    http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=83444



    and most reently:



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=54195



    I feel like I deserve the credit for opening people's eye as to what is happening (when in actuality, the people at Apple are who deserve the credit).
  • Reply 13 of 85
    aries 1baries 1b Posts: 1,009member
    Look! [Insert Significant Apple Computer Oriented Event with Speech by Steve Jobs Here] is almost here!



    Look! Someone has actually seen The or An Apple Tablet or G10 Apple Laptop with an Incredible Flapping Keyboard or PDA or iWalk!



    Mighty Kormac soon to weigh in!



    Matsu to angrily follow and righteously denounce! ( )



    None of this has ever happened before!!!!!!!



    Jus' watchin Lake Rumors swirl and boil.



    Mmmm Jennifer? How about another round of gimlets? There's a good lass....



    V/R,



    Aries 1B
  • Reply 14 of 85
    murkmurk Posts: 935member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rongold



    I feel like I deserve the credit for opening people's eye as to what is happening (when in actuality, the people at Apple are who deserve the credit).



    Sorry, but Codename and Kormac opened our eyes to this concept many moons ago. Hell, it was probably us going on about it that gave Steve the idea.
  • Reply 15 of 85
    farvefarve Posts: 69member
    I think the tabet (think powerpod) isn't that far feched. The ipod has been the coolest tech upontill the PSP. An Apple tablet done right would so rock. Steve said they had great things in the lab. Video iTunes.... a video capable iPod would so lame compared to the PSP...we want more... we want tablet.



    Viktor
  • Reply 16 of 85
    rongoldrongold Posts: 302member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murk

    Sorry, but Codename and Kormac opened our eyes to this concept many moons ago. Hell, it was probably us going on about it that gave Steve the idea.



    Hmmm... just out of curiosity, if I was to do a search, what terms would I use?
  • Reply 17 of 85
    rhumgodrhumgod Posts: 1,289member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rongold

    I have been talking about this thing for a year at places like:



    http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...04&#post380704



    http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=54669



    http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=83444



    and most reently:



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=54195



    I feel like I deserve the credit for opening people's eye as to what is happening (when in actuality, the people at Apple are who deserve the credit).



    Christ why?!?!?! The first I read of it was at The Register going on four years. Grow up.
  • Reply 18 of 85
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murk

    Sorry, but Codename and Kormac opened our eyes to this concept many moons ago. Hell, it was probably us going on about it that gave Steve the idea.



    Can we sue Steve for that??



    I mean he DID sign the Terms of Use didn't he??



  • Reply 19 of 85
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by farve

    I ...we want more... we want tablet.



    Viktor





    What we NEED is more cowbell!!





    http://www.subterrane.com/walken/igotafever.mp3



  • Reply 20 of 85
    aries 1baries 1b Posts: 1,009member
    So......

    IF

    Apple were to release a Tablet...



    What advance notice could we anticipate?



    Leaks from professionally suicidal Apple Employees? Nope. Workerbee's fate coupled with Steve Jobs' rising and increasingly publicized dedication to pursing leakers and leak publishers lowers that probability. Intel and Genetech joined in Apple's lawsuit. The rumor sites are going to go along, I think, for the time being. That pretty much means that conventional 'direct' lines of information probably won't pan out.



    There's the Patent seen first in England and more recently in the United States.



    Let's consider other, non-linear sources. An Apple Tablet would probably mean new ways to interact with OS X (MaybeLite). Indeed, entirely new software may arise to be launched with such a Tablet. Before a Tablet would be launched, I'd think that developers would need to be aware of the Tablet's specs before hand so that they could develop their software. It barely follows that perhaps the developers would telegraph an impending Tablet through what they release.



    I have found these three links that grabbed my attention:

    First, an ebook reader for MacOS X that seems better suited to a Tablet than to either a desktop or to a laptop.



    Next, SketchUp 5 was released to the AIA. Another drafting program, but something about this announcement strikes me as a sort of a milestone. "3D modeling to the masses".



    Last, there's InkBook. Someone went to all the trouble of writing this program that mimics paper and pen, exploits handwritten input and just doesn't play with the idea of use on either a desktop nor a laptop connected to even a wireless tablet.



    These tenuous links are probably not related to the Mythical Tablet, but I think, in the broad strokes, that this is how we'll get 'real' advance notice, if any, and if indeed the Apple Tablet exists.



    V/R,



    Aries 1B
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