It may be an anachronism, but the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow down typists to prevent jamming. It was designed to allow faster typing before key jamming became a problem.

Speaking of anachronisms, weren't Steve Jobs' floppy-less computers also anachronistic? We eventually reached the point where dropping the floppy drive made sense, but that time came quite a bit after Jobs started selling iMacs (or Next boxes to go even earlier). I don't remember too many people/magazines saying that no would buy a floppy-less computer -- although there were many who said it was a bad idea (and at that time, they were right). Being "ahead of its time" is not always a positive attribute.

No one will buy colorful computers; people like beige.

brilliant read...

'We at The Inq, on the other hand are cut from a sterner cloth and will remain agnostic about the fabled Apple Tablet until we can actually hold one in our sweaty mitts.'

Oh, yeah, right, you mean like all those other believable articles? Google buying Valve? Really guys?

To your credit the bullshit percentage has gone down since Charlie left.. Not that he's not a nice guy but he wrote a lot of crap.

My very humble best guess is that the whole discussion is driven too much by aesthetics. Small wonder, considering the "Macolyte" demographic.

If I were Steve Jobs I'd like to have something that can be sold to the print media people like that phone was sold to the Telcos.
Just imagine a decent digital ink driven device as a single source digital drain walled garden for what used to be print.

You may also sell it to the Mail Order bunch because - seriously - their online catalogs suck big time.

Finally some sensible-ness!

Finally someone who sees, like I've been telling people for ages too, that any tablet cannot cost the $700-$900 you see quoted everywhere.

People tend to forget that a new unlocked iPhone 3GS would cost you $1000 due to getting it so 'cheap' on a contract.

There is no way a tablet will be less than an iPhone now is there, unless the tablet too is sold on contract, heavily subsidised and with a monthly fee to pay.

Dave

Hey is the INQ not bashing Apple anymore? Or is it because Mr Farrell is not writing this article? Good to see some straight forward stories on Apple without the stupid “Apple is evil crap”.

the actual working version of the thingy to cost $2000, you know -the one I want. It'll have the fast processor, lots of ram, a 128 gb ssd, a billion ways to connect online. $1200 will buy you the cut-rate slow motion one.

We all know that the iTable(t) will be (was?) formed in the presence of a burning bush, on the mount of Sinai. However, the true paradigm shift will occur when Apple releases the long-awaited Macbook Wheel.

"The agile aardvark arrived by airmail."

If the tablet is indeed using the iphone operating system instead of something real, then it will be ARM based and priced accordingly.

The problem with tablets and MIDs hasn't been functionality, it's been cost and battery life. Noone is going to pay top dollar for something they can't crank out a spreadsheet on. If this tablet exists, it will cost no more than $399. If it's more than this, then it's already irrelevant and Steve Jobs shouldn't have bothered.

Any kind of tablet or netbook from Apple has to wait until they figure out the software part, develop an integrated, intuitive user interface that's tailored to the form factor. That's what they do better than anyone else.

My prediction is Apple is looking more at a e-reader than a tablet per se., and that it won't be much more than $500.

"UltraPortable PCs from Apple using Flash memory will be delivered as early as 2007." (Benjamin Reitzes)

- well they did release the SSD-equipped ultraportable PC (MacBook Air) just 15 days later (Jan 15 2008)

I found this article to be quite thoughtfully done. It is also one of the few articles on the subject to actually consider the possibility that Apple may not even be working on such a device.

The Iwhatever's existence is always just assumed by everyone, and all the discussion then centers on the features, price, and release date. Perhaps they are laughing sanitarily into their elbows back in Cupertino.

If Apple is about to launch such a device, let's hope that Mr. Ives' "blank slate" is as comprehensively thought through as Mr. Meagher's.

I saw a very bright tunneling light...

I was wearing a helmet of opposite attraction and facing a furacious snow leper...

Then the dungeon-master diced-me out and took my wine.

Cor figure!

I stopped being a mac guy (long time mac guy) when the first G3 came out. This was supposed to be Apple's top of the line workstation and it looks gawd awful. Everyone at the time thought it was something brilliant from the future. TERRIBLE. Look at them now, would anyone have that crap on their desk? And what about the iMac? It looks TERRIBLE. The current pro lines are the only thing that are decent. The iPhone/iPod compared to the new ZuneHD looks like utter comical kid crap. Whatever they are paying someone for design tips, its too much.

Keys on either side sounds too Intel/MS MID-ey. They already sell a bluetooth keyboard so that'd be the sensible approach (and more sales). And handwriting, but they can't demo handwriting as a big feature or they'll be savaged by the press again (a pity).

...as to the Cube - for being an amusingly flawed design (speaking of design-geniuses) as far as the blockable vents went, it did launch a thousand mini-ITX boxes (and their own rather successful Mini). So that wasn't really a bad call - people seem to have a thing for cubes, but won't pay a $500 premium for them.

Now, if they hadn't fucked that up (o, for some simple raised plastic... maybe a mushroom vent), then maybe passive cooling wouldn't have died on the desktop for the past N years.

Itablet may/will be the first holeless device. With inductive charging and wireless talk to the world. And will be shown in ads used by scuba divers and people like them.W

Will it have a self destruct button or just blow up on its own?

Not convinced about the keys on either side idea - mainly because Microsoft already thought that one up for their tablets...

And not convinced about no speakers, either - the dock will no doubt contain the main speakers (for movies), but I would expect the tablet to have at least some form of sound generation.

Hi- Ultee' Steve here With GOOD News, dosn't it just Make Sense That New bigger TABLET Will do More than these Small Crummy Ones That Almost Killed Me?
Watch CES Show....Watch For CES Show & Its Apple SubShowing IN Those Next weeks.... Look to CES Shows.

Hope Steve Puts Telephone in it, To Save ultee' Brain or where'd drashek Be?

Real fight Is Whom Invented LIGHTPEAK, well, Know that Dr.asher. Man those Peaks, RED & RAW.

In Mean Time Looks Like.Sig: i Tab PRN IS Almost Redie. Signed: Madonna & Apple drashek

'Keys will be arranged in two groups on either side of the screen allowing users to grasp the tablet by its edges and type using two thumbs. Anyone who has ever seen a teenager texting at 120 words a minute will get the picture.'

In other words like the one Microsoft did for the UMPC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11732808/page/2/

If Apple want to make a real tablet then good handwriting recog is a must and Ink is nowhere near. Vista's was pretty good and Windows 7's is just plain scary.

I agree with your idea about the industrial design of the iTablet. It will probably be different from the iphone because being different and new will make a big splash. The iphone's aesthetic design is very constrained by size limitations but a tablet will be less constrained so we can expect more a more elaborate design. I don't think the price will top $100 however. Milling a block of aluminum doesn't cost THAT much. Somewhere around ~$700 is my guess.

from your big brothers at ElReg. one better known as Bill Ray.
Why the iPhone will fail and fail badly.
Remember that cr*p" "vision" he presented?