Rumor: Is this Apple's new Newton or UMPC?

Bob Russell · 12-26-2007, 05:43 PM

David Sieger from SeekingAlpha is attempting to assemble information about a possible future device from Apple, that could be Newton or UMPC-like.

Here are some highlights:

5.2" 800 x 480 pixel touch screen
Probably an on-screen keyboard
Held in landscape orientation with both hands on the ends
Could ship in the second half of 2008, say 6-8 months after an appearance outside the Apple labs.

Via ComputerWorld Blogs.

georgejoskin · 12-26-2007, 05:47 PM

looks like a big ipod?

CommanderROR · 12-27-2007, 05:09 AM

It looks like a photoshopped iPhone to me...if it hasn't got keys (or perhaps even a full keyboard) then I'm not interested...^^

Steven Lyle Jordan · 12-27-2007, 08:50 AM

The source confirms that this is just an artist's conception, based on the reports/rumors. It does also say that, according to those rumors, there won't be a physical keyboard. I think it's too early to speculate, but looking at the iPods, I'd guess that an on-screen keyboard is likely. However, a bluetooth KB might not be out of the question...

cstross · 12-27-2007, 08:58 AM

A bluetooth-and-wifi equipped Apple tablet with an 800x480 screen and the touch interface would, indeed, be a joy and a delight -- as long as it had a working HID in its bluetooth stack so you could add a keyboard and mouse where necessary, and as long as it had an open SDK.

In fact, it'd be a very serious threat to Nokia's web tablet business (at one end) and Microsoft's Origami/UMPC business (at the other). Not to mention eating Archos' video PMP business along the way.

It wouldn't be a dedicated ebook reader, though. That's too small a niche market to attract Apple (although they might release ebook reading software for it; and there's always Adobe, and the OS/X port of FBReader to keep us happy).

I'd see it as being positioned to straddle a bunch of niches -- a big media player (better than the iPod Touch), a post-Newton PDA with multitouch, a remote control/remote terminal for the Apple TV home media hub, and a thumb in the eye to Microsoft for their UMPCs. And I'd buy one in a split second (subject to provisos about bluetooth, peripherals, sdk, and so on).

But I'm not convinced it'll happen this way. Note that the iPod Touch lacks bluetooth? Given bluetooth, a working HID, and an open software environment, the Touch would slaughter Palm and Windows Mobile in what's left of the dedicated-PDA market. It's that good. But it'd also cannibalize sales of the iPhone, because you could just buy a cheaper Touch (with no phone contract) and pair it with your existing mobile phone. Apple won't release a product that destroys an existing successful product line -- that's one of the lessons they learned from the disastrous 1990s. So any new tablet Mac will have to be different enough from the iPhone that it won't eat into its user base.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 12-27-2007, 09:05 AM

As good as it might turn out to be, I'm not sure how much of a threat to the existing markets it will be... given the usual high price of Apple products. I mean, Motorola isn't exactly shutting down operations thanks to the iPhone.

yvanleterrible · 12-27-2007, 10:05 AM

The task icons at the base of the device's display suggest a UMPC of some kind, unfortunately if the interface remains built around touch it will be useless. My pinky would grab 5 icons at a time. Even a stylus would require a deft aim. As far as one can examin, everything says "Not complete". It must be a pipe dream from some over enthousiastic Apple fan.

The size of this device would be appropriate for a PDA but so would the iPhone and iPod Touch with the right software additions. UMPCs as they are today are a little too small to be easily usable with any input. Any computer's existence is dependant on it. Of course some people may have a use for a computer that requires only display and basic navigation, in these cases UMPCs shine. Most of us need a computer for data input, be it textual or graphic, and interface for those take up space; you can't draw with a thumb mouse or type rapidly with a thumb touch screen.

What we all need is a small tablet or pad the size of an iLiad, without bezel and roughly 1/4" thick so it is comfortable to draw or write on. Turn it sideways to display a tiny touch interface keyboard and leave several lines to display text on top to see what you do.(I made a typo writing comfortable and added a 't' at the end: "comfortablet" That would make for a great name

)

Better still make it two adjacent displays, clamshell like, to make it a micro laptop with one screen a touch keyboard used at will. Turn it sideways and the keyboard becomes an other vertical page. With today's technology and Apple savvy the possibilities are enticing...

Steven Lyle Jordan · 12-27-2007, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Better still make it two adjacent displays, clamshell like, to make it a micro laptop with one screen a touch keyboard used at will. Turn it sideways and the keyboard becomes an other vertical page. With today's technology and Apple savvy the possibilities are enticing...

...I like it.

cstross · 12-27-2007, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

The task icons at the base of the device's display suggest a UMPC of some kind

Actually, it's the standard OS/X Leopard Dock (as in, what I'm staring at on this here iMac). Hint: the dock supports real-time magnification -- move your cursor over it and the icons bulge out at you. But in any case, it's fairly obviously just a photoshopped mock-up.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 12-27-2007, 02:07 PM

It probably would have been more accurate/representative to use some of the iPhone or iPod Touch screen icons instead.

nekokami · 12-27-2007, 02:27 PM

I don't know how the real-time magnification would work with a touch screen. The screen can't tell your finger is "over" the icon to magnify it.

mobilesalesman · 12-27-2007, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Better still make it two adjacent displays, clamshell like, to make it a micro laptop with one screen a touch keyboard used at will. Turn it sideways and the keyboard becomes an other vertical page. With today's technology and Apple savvy the possibilities are enticing...

...I like it.

I agree! The reality is mainstream users want a touch type keyboard (real keyboard) The umpc's and mid's form factor in order to gain real mainstream sales needs to provide a basic laptop in your pocket.

If Apple thinks a larger iphone is what mobile users want they are wrong. MS made the mistake by pushing all the companies to build devices 7" and not mobile to carry in a pocket. What is needed is NOT a device too small nor too large. A device that when folded fits into a large inside jacket pocket yet provides the largest screen and a built in touch type keyboard.

Remember the old Psion 5mx or Revo? at 6.9" long it had a keyboard that with a little practice provided about 80% of desktop speeds and stowed in a jacket. Those HPC's sold over 2.3 million/per year and did not run full windows. The UMPC's run full windows but are pen input and too large to fit in your jacket pocket and had no touch type keyboard; guess what IDC says only 350,000 sold in 2007 worldwide.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 12-28-2007, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mobilesalesman

Remember the old Psion 5mx or Revo?

I had a Revo, and I thought it was a great form factor. (A shame the ribbonwire didn't hold up to all that hinge-ing...) A similar form factor in a dual-screen device, one screen converting to a virtual keyboard on demand, would be great. (As an aside, that screen could also convert to other virtual control interfaces, specific to the application, on demand. Specialty apps, games, GPS, all kinds of things could use that.)

Steven Lyle Jordan · 12-28-2007, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

I don't know how the real-time magnification would work with a touch screen. The screen can't tell your finger is "over" the icon to magnify it.

You wouldn't do the "magnify from the bottom row" thing at all. Just use the iPhone or iPod Touch icons in the middle of the screen at full size, 2 rows of 4 or 5, and group them for larger numbers of icons. Just as the iPhone and iPod Touch do now.

mobilesalesman · 12-28-2007, 03:42 PM

Another great form factor is the new Samsung sph p9200 (sold only in Korea) it tri-folds to reveal close to a full size keyboard and a 5" screen; when closed it just barely is jacket pocket size but it should just fit? http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-sph...ver-097876.php

12-26-2007, 05:43 PM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Rumor: Is this Apple's new Newton or UMPC? David Sieger from SeekingAlpha is attempting to assemble information about a possible future device from Apple, that could be Newton or UMPC-like. Here are some highlights: 5.2" 800 x 480 pixel touch screen Probably an on-screen keyboard Held in landscape orientation with both hands on the ends Could ship in the second half of 2008, say 6-8 months after an appearance outside the Apple labs. Via ComputerWorld Blogs.

12-27-2007, 08:58 AM	#5
cstross Cynic Posts: 86 Karma: 514 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland Device: Lots, started with a Psion 3 circa 1998	A bluetooth-and-wifi equipped Apple tablet with an 800x480 screen and the touch interface would, indeed, be a joy and a delight -- as long as it had a working HID in its bluetooth stack so you could add a keyboard and mouse where necessary, and as long as it had an open SDK. In fact, it'd be a very serious threat to Nokia's web tablet business (at one end) and Microsoft's Origami/UMPC business (at the other). Not to mention eating Archos' video PMP business along the way. It wouldn't be a dedicated ebook reader, though. That's too small a niche market to attract Apple (although they might release ebook reading software for it; and there's always Adobe, and the OS/X port of FBReader to keep us happy). I'd see it as being positioned to straddle a bunch of niches -- a big media player (better than the iPod Touch), a post-Newton PDA with multitouch, a remote control/remote terminal for the Apple TV home media hub, and a thumb in the eye to Microsoft for their UMPCs. And I'd buy one in a split second (subject to provisos about bluetooth, peripherals, sdk, and so on). But I'm not convinced it'll happen this way. Note that the iPod Touch lacks bluetooth? Given bluetooth, a working HID, and an open software environment, the Touch would slaughter Palm and Windows Mobile in what's left of the dedicated-PDA market. It's that good. But it'd also cannibalize sales of the iPhone, because you could just buy a cheaper Touch (with no phone contract) and pair it with your existing mobile phone. Apple won't release a product that destroys an existing successful product line -- that's one of the lessons they learned from the disastrous 1990s. So any new tablet Mac will have to be different enough from the iPhone that it won't eat into its user base. Last edited by cstross; 12-27-2007 at 09:01 AM.

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12-26-2007, 05:47 PM	#2
georgejoskin book worm Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: sony 505	looks like a big ipod?

12-27-2007, 05:09 AM	#3
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	It looks like a photoshopped iPhone to me...if it hasn't got keys (or perhaps even a full keyboard) then I'm not interested...^^

12-27-2007, 08:50 AM	#4
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	The source confirms that this is just an artist's conception, based on the reports/rumors. It does also say that, according to those rumors, there won't be a physical keyboard. I think it's too early to speculate, but looking at the iPods, I'd guess that an on-screen keyboard is likely. However, a bluetooth KB might not be out of the question...

12-27-2007, 09:05 AM	#6
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	As good as it might turn out to be, I'm not sure how much of a threat to the existing markets it will be... given the usual high price of Apple products. I mean, Motorola isn't exactly shutting down operations thanks to the iPhone.

12-27-2007, 10:05 AM	#7
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	The task icons at the base of the device's display suggest a UMPC of some kind, unfortunately if the interface remains built around touch it will be useless. My pinky would grab 5 icons at a time. Even a stylus would require a deft aim. As far as one can examin, everything says "Not complete". It must be a pipe dream from some over enthousiastic Apple fan. The size of this device would be appropriate for a PDA but so would the iPhone and iPod Touch with the right software additions. UMPCs as they are today are a little too small to be easily usable with any input. Any computer's existence is dependant on it. Of course some people may have a use for a computer that requires only display and basic navigation, in these cases UMPCs shine. Most of us need a computer for data input, be it textual or graphic, and interface for those take up space; you can't draw with a thumb mouse or type rapidly with a thumb touch screen. What we all need is a small tablet or pad the size of an iLiad, without bezel and roughly 1/4" thick so it is comfortable to draw or write on. Turn it sideways to display a tiny touch interface keyboard and leave several lines to display text on top to see what you do.(I made a typo writing comfortable and added a 't' at the end: "comfortablet" That would make for a great name ) Better still make it two adjacent displays, clamshell like, to make it a micro laptop with one screen a touch keyboard used at will. Turn it sideways and the keyboard becomes an other vertical page. With today's technology and Apple savvy the possibilities are enticing...

12-27-2007, 02:07 PM	#10
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	It probably would have been more accurate/representative to use some of the iPhone or iPod Touch screen icons instead.

12-27-2007, 02:27 PM	#11
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I don't know how the real-time magnification would work with a touch screen. The screen can't tell your finger is "over" the icon to magnify it.

12-28-2007, 03:42 PM	#15
mobilesalesman Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: HP Jornada 728	Another great form factor is the new Samsung sph p9200 (sold only in Korea) it tri-folds to reveal close to a full size keyboard and a 5" screen; when closed it just barely is jacket pocket size but it should just fit? http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-sph...ver-097876.php

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