“A few weeks ago we were having a civilised dinner with our friends at Asus and angling for cool stories when we were told in a very hushed manner: ‘Asus is helping Apple build a Tablet PC,'” Rory Reid reports for CNET.
“Asus is Apple’s contract manufacturer… so when their guys tell us they’re building an Apple Tablet, we believe them,” Reid reports.
“We’re guessing it’ll be based on Intel Core architecture, a tweaked version of Leopard, and have all the multi-touch, CoverFlow goodness we’ve seen in the iPhone and iPod touch,” Reid reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Alden” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Hello, Mac touch! Apple’s marketing mavens would probably give wide berth to the word “tablet” word to avoid picking up any bad vibes from the stylus-driven, Windows-ridden, anemic-selling “Tablet PC” fiasco.
don’t need it, but i’m sure id want it haha. A lot of people do not need the full functionality of a computer, itunes, some word processing, web, email and maybe photos is enough for a lot of people, so could be something popular.
cant wait!!
I’m so all over this, especially if i can use it to control the Apple TV or my Mac Mini connected to my tv.
Woot.
It’s going to be called the MacSlate.
An incredible subnote book that is MULTI-TOUCH driven.
Apple definately will avoid the TABLET word.
Shawn
Give me an iPhone, integrated into the charger a video out to a computer monitor (put the chip in the charger base). Of course, complete the Bluetooth connectivity with the keyboard.
BMW could be the first car manufacturer to adopt this technology to replace the driving interface for high-end automobiles. The steering wheel will be the first to go….
Someone’s gonna get “Steved” this morning at Asus.
Hello Touch,
bye bye mouse
I call bullsh*t.
NO! I am just getting used to that mouse thingy
A tablet?
Maybe Apple will start putting download kiosks in CD stores, too.
Apple is going to put the portable world and the PDA world out of sigth,this “mac touch“ is going to put another bomb in the pc world.
O/T: Here’s the latest FM transmitter for your daily jog in the park.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/01/1614200
It would give new meaning to iPod nano.
Ho my god…..Another thing I will need to buy from Apple….This is getting really expensive to be an Apple customer……Ha,ha,ha!!!!!!
we have heard this forever, and we keep biting. you know why?
because as useless as the tablets have been, we all know that if someone makes this form and input factor useful it will be Apple.
if they get the specs right and the size is nice, my wife will be very unhappy with me, cause we are going to spend some money……
I love sitting in front of my big screen tv in my family room with my iBook.
Whenever I see a commercial or hear a subject on a news show I find interesting, I am googling it what I watch tv.
This new MacTouch would be great and I hope Apple doesn’t kill the project just to spite the manufacturer for leaking the story.
Seeing the MacSlate suggestion above I was reminded of my post a couple of years back…it was of course the iPhone though!
Jan 13, 06 – 06:50am Comment from: Macaday
MacSlate
4″x3″x0.7″ full screen edge to edge/virtual buttons/OS X/Phone/WiFi/iSight
BINGO…APPLE TAKES ALL.
(Shares go to $150)
Those Apple bastards are destroying the tablet business.
MDNMW: ‘example’, like in: another.
I heard it will be a Newton with something called Feature Intensive Graphics, or a F.I.G Newton for short.
(apologies to old timers….)
The name “Mac Touch” makes perfect sense to tie in with “iPod Touch.”
And just think, if the Mac Tablet’s small monitor is glossy, it would be a great makeup or shaving mirror! <ducks>
‘Apple definately will avoid the TABLET word.’
Yes they definitely will.
MW- freedom, as in freedom to spell as you wish.
“it would be a great makeup or shaving mirror!”
Hmm….I never thought of using a mirror for either of those……..
Personally I think we’ll see ever bigger and advanced devices similar to the iPod Touch which gradually become more and more like the desktop OS based computers we know now. As opposed to a Leopard Mac OS X desktop stuck in a tablet with a multi-touch input mechanism (to put it bluntly).
Oh yeah! “MacBook touch”, come to daddy.
So this has to be a combo device. I can draw with stylus and write with my hands. It would be awesome for writing and drafting.
to both Golfer and Shen:
I have advice for you: since it is clear you’ll need some money to spend on this device, I suggest while waiting for the release of it, put that money into Apple stock. By the time it is out, your money will double and you’ll have Apple buy you your shiny new Mac Touch!
On a similar note, to Macaday,
Your prediction was off the mark (the stock now being at $185, and not $150…). Otherwise, not bad at all; I’ve been saying it for years before iPhone was announced that it was such an obvious concept (marriage of an iPod and cellphone).
I fear that Asus will no longer build any computer for Apple Com!
I want a MacBook nano or a MacBook Pro nano!
I wonder if a possible MacTouch will be locked like the iPhone / iPod touch…
If you can have Pages or Word (Ewwwwr) I’ll have to have it, but I’ll have to have it anyway…
I would hate to be on the receiving end of the phone call that Steve is making right now to Asus.
i love tablets!
There is nothing in the world my wife and I would like more than a tablet we can hang in the kitchen to coordinate via airport express – our Calendars.
With 3 kids and a myriad of activities – it brings a whole new direction to iLife.
Face it – iLife is more of a leisure type application. iCal on iTablet hanging on iWall is a serious hub device.
…Or…it could be a pre-planned leak to get things stirred up…hmmm. Imagine the play on words…’a multi-touch device that is the thickness of your table top instead the thickness of your whole table itself’. Ballmer would order a whole new set of chairs, yet forget to order his anti-perspirant again.
cb: I’m with you. A tablet stuck to the frig as a clearinghouse for everything family.
A common property window on the network.
Buy stock in companies that sell screen cleaners to remove fingerprint smudges!
Do you really think Apple needs Asus help? With thousands of people in R&D;department?
Naaa… I think they’ll do it, but they’ll do it theirselves…
And that’s THE product I need: I spend 10 to 12 hours a day in my office. An iMac would work greatly. The Mac Touch would be ideal for travelling.
Mmm, ok I got it.
Asustek is a producer…
Here we go, here we go, here we go (repeat ad nauseum)
Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this would be a good idea not only as a computer but as a control device for other computers or devices like the Apple TV. Can’t wait to see this product!
iTouch, iPad, MacPamphlet, iScreen, microTouch, gogogadgetMac…. who knows what they’ll call it? It will be a well engineered, well thought out, ‘must have’ device that will propel AAPL even higher!
I see $210 by Christmas.
I’ll buy it but only if it starts multi-touching back. No more of this one way stroking bullshit. Next thing you know it’ll want dinner at a nice restaurant and expensive jewelry.
An Apple tablet mac would be very cool and very useful for certain applications.
Someone mentioned iCal. I like the new setup in Leopard. However I still don’t get the Birthday function. I have all my family’s BD in the address book and set it up to link with iCal. As a result I see 2 events per BD for some reason. Not a biggie.
But what gets me is that there is no alarm for a BD. My folks are across the pond in the UK and I need a reminder 2 weeks before. How the hell do I do that. In the past I’ve resorted to set up a separate event for everyone, but I really want Apple to set this up for me. Any ideas?
Need one that bad? OWC is selling the ModBooks over at macsales.com
While I think Apple will come out with a Mac touch at some point, I am highly skeptical of ANY rumor from the Taiwanese manufacturers or the press which covers them. These rumors are notoriously inaccurate. I hope this is the rare occasion when a rumor is correct.
I’m also wondering when the iMac will get multi-touch capabilities, especially now that it has a glass screen and Leopard is released. Is the code in Leopard and just not activated yet?
this is a definite.
ModBooks haven’t started shipping yet (as far as I know). I’m planning on getting a ModBook in the near future. I *might* hold off and see what the “Mac Touch” is like. However, since I plan to use this to do artwork, I’ll go with the device most suited for drawing.
Screen size matters. Bigger is better.
RAM and harddrive options matter. Bigger and faster is better.
Stylus input matters. I can’t do good art drawing with just my fingers. And even if the “Mac Touch” permitted drawing with a non-electronic stylus (like a wooden stick), levels of sensitivity matters.
Well thank you Pedrag.
That $150 share price hit 60 days after the launch of iPhone so not too bad I’d say.
But you really should have pulled me up on those dimensions…wow, they were way out…
Actual: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches
Prediction: 4 x 3 x 0.7 inches
Modbook is pants – just tryig to get a Mac to look like a PC tablet is nothing more than a bodge.
It’s like adding iPhone icons to a LG phone – visually similar but no functionality
THIS IS NOT A TABLET. Remember the patents showing that x-large mouse pad? That’s what they’re making.
Finally, an replacement for my Newtons!!!
If it does everything a Cintiq can do, there may be a market for it.
TT, you should be standing apologetically in the corner! As you well know, the Newton is DEAD! Never coming back. Too much association with John (somebody-or-other) whose name shall not be mentioned in the halls of Cupertino. F.I.G. Newton, indeed! It’s even less likely to be used than anything containing the word “Tablet” – even if fashionably spelled as “tablet”. Bad word! Bad associations. Get thee HENCE.
On Topic: Humor aside, a Mac portable just large (small?) enough to fit in 90% of men’s suit-coat inside breast pockets is just waiting to happen. Get the hight and depth then adjust the width to produce a 16X9 screen. Should sell well to the sales crowd. With Skype and iCal on board, who’d need AT&T;? (thought I’d add my own “;”, if the software was going to do it anyway). The larger screen would make showing Keynote presentations – as well as updating them – so much easier than trying the same on an iPhone.
Dave
Towertone you are wrong. it will be called the Wide array yielding no energy Newton…aka the W.A.Y.N.E. Newton.
It will also be known as the MacBomb as it will not sell….too small a market.
Asus is going to get torn a new Anus for leaking that.
I’ll buy two….come on Apple!
It will be called the MacWindow….. uhh…maybe not..
I was looking at the Asus EEE. Pretty cool!
Magic Screen! …Ha Ha
lunch is over…. back to work…
My dad, a professor at a local community college, and on a board that approves technology purchases for the college, told me that someone is trying to convince the college to buy a lab full of “mod-books” (those apple notebooks that have been hacked to include a tablet screen). He asked me what I thought of it; I told him to forget about getting those – multi touch macs made by apple will be far superior, and make those tablet devices obsolete, very shortly.
It’s not a tablet, it’s the cure!
And when it comes out, people will whinge about how they can’t get it with a matte screen.
Hellz yah! Now i dont have to buy a Samsung Q1 to go with my Macbook…
I think a successful tablet Mac depends on having a high-resolution display (200-300 dpi) so that it feels like a book or piece of paper and not a computer screen.
This in turn requires … wait for it… a resolution-independent OS so the widgets don’t go all tiny on you.
And guess when Apple has said that resolution-independence is coming to OS X? 2008!
DL
Asus is just an ass with u in the middle.
@ UltraVisitor
It all depends on what the lab is to be used for. If it’s to be used for surfing the internet and typing papers, iMacs would pobably be the best way to go. If the lab is to be used for digital imaging classes, Mac Pros and Cintiqs would be ideal. If cost is a consideration, or if portablility is needed, I think ModBooks could be an acceptable alternative to Mac Pros and Cintiqs.
If the Mac Touch does not have an electronic stylus, using it would be like working on a wet canvas–there’s no place to rest your hand without producing smudges. Same way with writing on it, or doing any kind of sketching or note-taking.
Also, the Mac Touch has been described as being smaller. I assume that means a smaller screen, lesser RAM, and smaller harddrive options. All of those are nonstarters for something to be used drawing, painting, working with photographs–doing artwork of any kind.
If the purpose of the lab is to allow students to take notes in class that include making sketches of diagrams, in my opinion the ModBook would be ideal. In my opinion, the Mac Touch (as it has been described to date) would stink at that application.
@max
The ModBook is essentially a MacBook with a built-in Cintiq. For those of us that need such a device, it is a godsend. For those of you who don’t need it, then perhaps it is pants or a bodge.
I’m pretty sure it’ll be called the Maclet.
user experience is important to Apple-so you will never see touch on the iMac. apple does not want you to experience neck, shoulder and back pain from trying to hold your hands and arms up at shoulder/head height for extended periods of time. also factor in nobody with any brains sits close enough to a 20 or 24” monitor to touch it.
Apple branded tablet is a possibility.
“Asus is just an ass with u in the middle.”
Asus, Apple, All the same.
Sounds neat, and while I can a multitude of uses fo such a device, it’s not something I would have much use for.
What I want is an Apple “Touch” keyboard.
No projecting keys and easy to keep clean. Just a smooth, flat surface that can be easily reprogrammed for a different keyboard layout…including (or not…at my choice) a numeric keypad and/or a touch pad. Maybe even the functionality of a small 2nd monitor.
The iPhone is cool, but not useful for me. I don’t make many phone calls. I want to replace my Newton Messagepad with a Macintosh (on which I am allowed to install software!) that’s bigger than an iPhone and smaller than the existing MacBooks. No super-speed needed, I just want to take notes in meetings and access dotMac and use back-to-my-mac to my desktop Mac at home.
If it happens to be a “tablet” on which I can scribble a note (by finger or stylus, I don’t care) without having to find a table and chair for typing, so much the better.