Some companies are famous for being paranoid. As Andy Grove of Intel has said many time, “Only the paranoid survive.” So, you decide that if escorting the press to the restroom at Apple’s WWDC event is being too paranoid or not?
Doesn’t this sound like a great story for a cartoon? Too bad Twitter doesn’t support images, because that’s where it belongs.
Today’s announcement by Qik that they will be supporting the iPhone trumps everything I heard from WWDC.
This is fantastic. No idea if this is WiFi only or if it supports 3G well too. A download will be available next week so jailbreaking is going to be required–at least for now.
I’m very curious to see how the chat works. Can’t wait to give it a try on my iPhone. I guess I now have reason enough to jailbreak my iPhone.
The very unfortunate thing here is that the video is going to suck the battery life out of the iPhone and unlike let’s say the Nokia N95 (which supports Qik), there’s no way to change the battery on the fly. I’m guessing we could run from a portable, external battery pack powering the iPhone via the USB/power connector.
[Found via TechCrunch]
Those Apple Tablet rumors just won’t go away. Yesterday AppleInsider revives talk of a larger iPhone multi-touch device:
“Intel has been in the running to assert its Atom processors at heart of a larger iPhone-like Multi-Touch internet tablet that’s also under development at the Cupertino-based electronics maker, and was at one time believed to have sealed the deal.”
Well, if this device is based on an Atom processor, then it’s obvious why we haven’t seen anything from Apple yet: The MID-focused Atom processor isn’t shipping. So far Intel is only shipping or soon to be shipping in quantity the Diamondville version of the Atom processor, which is targetted to inexpensive notebooks rather than mobile Internet devices. The other version of the Atom processor/chipset which we believe is more geared towards MIDs and the like isn’t shipping yet and even at Computex no one seems to be saying when the Atom-based MIDs will be available.
Intel’s Sean Maloney suggests that with MIDs “there’s much more experimental design,” which is I guess part of an excuse why MIDs are taking longer to hit the shelf–like any Apple MID itself. Interestingly, Maloney continues, “By the end of this year, you will have seen a whole bunch of new MIDs coming out and we’ll see which ones are hits.” So whereas MIDs were originally thought to be on slate for a June launch, it sounds like things are still not ready.
It could be because of the designs themselves or maybe it’s because of Intel’s lagging supply of the Atom processors used in these devices. It makes sense that if there are no chips and Apple is going to use these chips in a forthcoming Tablet-like device, that Apple can’t release anything yet either. Or maybe in deference to Apple as it continues to work out its design issues, maybe Intel is holding back until Apple is ready. That would be odd, but I guess it wouldn’t be impossible to imagine. If true, then that would make Steve Jobs’ recent comments on the next version of OS X (which presumably would be the big brother to an embedded version running in a touch Tablet) a misdirection in that he says, “We’re going to hit the pause button on new features” and work on parallelism and “foundational issues”. It doesn’t take much to imagine that an Apple Tablet is going to need new features tuned to it. So if the Apple Tablet uses an embedded version of the OS, and the OS is on pause for adding new features, then my guess is the Apple Tablet is on pause too in terms of software. Then again, maybe the embedded OS has branched off from Snow Leopard. That would be odd, especially if handwriting recognition improvements are involved in any way–and those are currently aging and in the existing OS. So if they’re fixed for an iPhone and Tablet, they’d be put in the main OS X too. This is all conjecture. Complete guessing. Who knows.
Anyway, if Apple is going to use the Atom family in a Tablet/PDC/iPhone+, then we’re talking at least about later this summer for a launch–if there is a launch. It’s making sense why we didn’t see anything at the WWDC. Then again, maybe we didn’t see anything at WWDC and we won’t see anything later this summer or year, because the Apple Tablet is still an R&D effort and nothing more. Ah, the rumors.
Is the era of Apple underpromising and over delivering dead?
When you think about it, the last couple major Apple events have held few if any surprises. I’d go as far as to say they were on the edge of being boring. Maybe it’s inevitable as Apple moves more towards the IT market–you know, as Apple becomes more like Microsoft. Does this make Apple more predictable and dare I say boring? During today’s keynote, for instance, during the partner demos I almost had the feeling I was watching Microsoft partner demos at TechEd. Was anyone inspired by any of it? I wasn’t.
And as Ben Patterson points out, there hasn’t been a “One More Thing” the last couple events. Kind of interesting compared to what it seemed like Apple was able to deliver in the early 2000s. To be fair, it’s hard to exceed expectations once let alone twice a year. Yep, Steve Jobs and Apple are mortal.
In fact, I think Apple’s been doing a fair bit of backpeddling the last couple events too. Take the iPhone SDK as an example. First the message was that the browser was the phone’s SDK and developers didn’t need more. Then Apple announced the iPhone SDK seemingly in response to all of the jailbreaking. Along the way Apple announced the single spot for purchasing or downloading iPhone apps, which it received further criticism for. And then today, it added a couple additional ways to distribute iPhone apps. Looks to me that Apple is maturing with its growth, providing more options for more customers and partners.
Of course, some of what might be going on here is timing plain and simple. If Apple wanted to release an Intel Atom based MID-like device, for instance, it could announce it but not ship it until around the Fall when the chips reach the market. Apple, I guess, could announce their forthcoming products, but since they are tied to Intel’s release dates like everyone else and considering that they are a secretive company, it might indicate that we watch for announcements around Intel product launch times.
So who knows, maybe there is One More Thing….it’s just that it’s not quite time yet. Stay tuned.
Despite all the tweets from the community, no Mac Tablet was announced at Apple’s WWDC event today.
I’m a bit surprised that Apple didn’t surprise us with a Tablet or more likely a smaller MID-like device. Wouldn’t a grown up iPod Touch or iPhone make sense? Bigger screen. Similar connectivity. Doubles as a reading device with content accessible through iTunes. Remote control and viewing of Apple TV content.
Maybe the rumors will come true some day, but the longer it takes, the more time we’ll all have to remember that Microsoft and its partners are the lead innovators when it comes to Tablet and Tablet-like technology.
Compare the handwriting recognition. Apple’s InkWell is so much the lagging technology–whether it came from the Newton or not. And touch? You think Apple’s in the lead here? Not exactly. Look at how much further Microsoft is taking multi-touch in the UI with its TouchWall and Surface initiatives. And then there’s the form factor itself. Who’s taking more innovative technology to the market? Apple? I think not. And what about education? And the arts? Shouldn’t computers be offering people even more than what you can type on a notebook or cell phone.
It disappoints me. I think Apple would make some awesome “Tablet” products.
Right now I’m kind of down over the lack of a Tablet announcement, but I look forward to the fall and the next Apple conference. Just think of all the Tablet rumors between now and then!
Need we look any further?
By the way: There are a couple Magic 8-Ball web pages for the iPhone which kind of work, but this native app looks to be the only one that goes beyond a simple website. Isn’t shaking the iPhone a requirement? Seems to me it is too.
After today, I look forward to being able to install native iPhone apps without having to jail break the phone. Finally.
Wired pools together a pile of WWDC predictions. Gotta love em–especially the number of times that touch is mentioned. How many times have we said touch is here? It is.
One prediction that’s close to my heart is one of an Internet Tablet. From the article:
Steve Jobs said that Apple would never make a Tablet Mac. He also said there would never be a video iPod. A Kindle-sized iPod Touch would certainly be a great toy, but would anybody buy it? The iPod Touch is popular because it is a regular sized iPod with a slew of killer features, and people are used to the size. But a MacBook Touch would be a whole new product: too big to fit in a pocket and too small to do any real work (not to mention the lack of a real keyboard). But then, if anybody can take a flailing (read: all current tablet PCs) category and make it attractive, it’s Apple.
Actually I think a MID- or Kindle-sized iPod Touch would be a killer product. Part music iPod. Part book reader iPod. Part video iPod. Part remote for Apple TV. There’s no question in my mind that with a device like this Apple could ignite several magnitudes more interest in readers than lets say Amazon or Sony have been able to accomplish–in and out of schools. It would also give a boost to the teetering Apple TV.
Of course, there’s plenty of engineering reasons to think that the time isn’t quite right for this. The displays aren’t quite there. Nor is the battery life. They’re close enough for me, but I’m not sure if they’re close enough for Apple.
Tomorrow morning at 10AM Pacific Time we’ll all know if predictions like this are off base.
Kara Swisher puts her nightmare-vision glasses on and predicts that a series of Google acquisitions would be a terrible thing for Microsoft. She suggests that if Google were to acquire “Digg, moves onto, say, Spot Runner and others (Meebo, FriendFeed, iLike and even Slide?), focused especially in the online ad, messaging, online apps and mobile spaces” it would be a terrible thing for Microsoft.
I don’t buy the premise at all. Digg is no YouTube. Facebook isn’t even YouTube material if you ask me. So if Google wants to buy up all these companies, fine by me. It’s kind of like a major TV network buying up the top shows and moving them to their network to better leverage advertising. But like all good TV shows or restaurants, eventually they become the same old same old and fall out of favor. Digg is already on that downward spiral. Outside of the student market, Facebook is shows signs up banging its head against the wall too. Even eBay is looking mighty tired–outside of being a stained virtual-brick built online mall for small businesses.
I don’t think it would be a big deal if Google purchased all of these companies. Now it might help Microsoft short term I guess if Microsoft were the acquirer. But my guess is for whatever it would cost for Microsoft to buy them it wouldn’t be worth it.
To me, a much worse nightmare would be the trifecta of Apple, Adobe, and Yahoo joining forces. These three companies merged into one would rival Microsoft and Google.
First, it would solidify Yahoo’s foothold as #2 in search and very well might push it up to Google levels at least on the stock side as Disney comes into the mix. Yahoo wouldn’t just become mail.yahoo.com and a so-so content platform, it would bring in online content–much from Disney–like few others could deliver. Tied in with Apple’s platforms, you could imagine some rich experiences that few could leverage. Apple TV and Apple WiFi phones and Apple Chat and on and on could explode in popularity in a relatively short time.
Second, on the developer side, Adobe’s current developer strategy which is doing pretty well with Flash, Flex, and Air, but combined with Apple’s well-tuned platforms, it could become an even more compelling story. Just compare Google’s Android-home-run-aspirations or Microsoft’s psuedo-crossplatform efforts with .NET and Silverlight to this three way merger. Mix in Flickr APIs and similar possible online efforts in Yahoo and I think you have what could be a standing eight count for Microsoft and a couple years upset stomach for Google.
And third, an Apple-Adobe-Yahoo merger would help to solidify Apple not just as a consumer force to be reckoned with, but would help propel enterprise sales, in part because of possible tie ins with Adobe’s PDF/Acrobat strong holds. If Adobe can continue to leverage Flash and keep pushing Flex and Air in the enterprise and Apple’s hardware sales can go along for the ride, this could really challenge any of the Dell or HP packages at least in the US.
So yes, Kara, one could argue that Microsoft should try to swallow up every company it can before Google does so–and yeah, this might not be a bad thing short term–but this is by no means the worst nightmare for Microsoft. Of course, an Apple-Adobe-Yahoo merger is highly unlikely given all of the personalities. Kara’s prediction is more likely. But since we’re talking about nightmares….
What better place to hide something than in full view. So it was with great curiosity that I’ve been digging through some photos taken at Moscone–home of next week’s WWDC event.
I wondered: Might there be hints in the numerous banners going up as to whether Apple will be releasing an Apple MID or Tablet? Hmmm. Not that I can tell.
I even decided to dig into one photo behind the registration counter that purports to show a MacBook Air and an iPhone. But is that really an iPhone? Or might it be something else? A MID perhaps??
I decided to dig further. First, I corrected for the perspective in the image and then knowing the width of the Air to be 12.8″ I calculated out the width of the “iPhone” in the image.
Rats, it came out to 4.5″ x 2.4″ the exact dimensions of the currently shipping iPhone. Oh well, no secret clues here.
Forbes is spending too much time in the bushes trying to track down the latest scoup on what might actually be shown at WWDC next week.
After extensive reporting it appears that there are “mysterious” boxes making their way around the bay area. Hmmm.
Could these be some Tablet- or MID-like device? Who knows. I’ll take an iPhone MID thank you very much too. Where do I stand in line?
I guess we’ll find out Monday.
Jason O’Grady over at ZDNet is blogging that a Tablet Mac is to appear this fall. I’ve been hearing similar rumors for awhile too. But nothing has hit the market yet. Is the time coming soon though? I hope so. I think the market needs a little more shaking up. Competition is good.
Jason writes:
“A little birdy tells me that Apple will announce a 12 or 13-inch tablet in the fall of this year. Most likely in the September or October time frame. It will run the full Mac OS X and have a slot loading SuperDrive, an “iPhone-type” GPS chip and an Intel Core Duo processor, presumably Intel’s Atom.”
The size is consistent with one rumor I heard, although it doesn’t quite make sense since I’d expect an incremental step up from the iPhone. I’m thinking of something with a 5 to 7 inch display.
Jason doesn’t seem to have any hint as to the OS, which might be suggestive of the size. He says, “Whether it’ll be a based on the iPhone or MacBook form-factor remains to be seen.” A smaller device is more likely to have the iPhone OS versus a larger one. A larger device, though, might have an embedded OS if we’re talking about something super thin, such as a companion display with a built-in digitizer for your desktop or notebook. That might make a lot of sense. Apple’s been pretty good with creating well engineered products. Something thin would be another Apple wonder.
Oh, how I long for thinner Tablets. Could Apple be teaching the Tablet world how to make a slate?
It all depends on how you look at the statistics, but numbers are showing how strong Apple sales are in the US. eWeek has the low-down. It’s something like this:
Apple owns 66% of the US retail market for $1,000+ PCs.
Note: this doesn’t count online nor enterprise sales. That would make the number much smaller.
But if that caveat doesn’t make much difference to you, then you’ll be really glad to know that Apple owns 100% of the MacPro line of PCs purchased on a Tuesday in U.S. cities with populations greater than 100,000 and with one or more.
Aren’t statistics amazing? I think this is another sign that WWDC is coming up, wouldn’t you say?
Actually, I think these stats are in part an indication of how much the PC channel has changed in the last several years. The OEMs are selling direct hurting most small shops as well as cutting into larger ones, such as CompUSA.
Tablet PCs got caught in this transition as well. For instance, go try to find a store that has a Tablet in stock. There are a few, but unless you’re in a big city, it’s unlikely you’ll find one. In fact, the bigger stores that still carry Tablet PCs probably, like Apple, own huge chunks of the U.S. retail market. Not hard to do when the numbers are so small and there’s not much competition.
There are three, huge upcoming developer events: Apple’s WWDC, Google’s I/O developer gathering, and Microsoft’s TechEd. If you could only go to one event, which one would you pick?
I think the winner, for most developers, would be….drumroll….WWDC. Second place would be Google’s I/O. And in third–more appropriately last place–I’d say TechEd.
Unless you’ve already signed up for WWDC though, don’t pack your bags for it. For the first time ever WWDC has sold out. Yep, sounds like a bunch of other developers are thinking the same thing.
Google’s I/O sounds like an attractive alternative–in large part because it’s in it its early stages. That’s a great time to expand your network–by attending the foundation years of a growing event. Is there any doubt that as Google expands more and more into our lives that a Google developer event won’t become the event of the year?
And then there’s Microsoft’s TechEd two week event. What can I say? I’m not an IT guy so the IT tracks are not for me. And the developer week of the event, is so…well, IT minded with its certification sessions and all. I guess if I was working at some mega-corp on an Intranet system that was built around Microsoft technologies, I’d be game. But I’m not.
And maybe, even if I were, I’d ask: “Is there any reason to go to a Microsoft event?”
Now don’t get me wrong, I’d really like to talk with the Silverlight team about some things as well as the WPF team, or WCF for that matter (what ARE they thinking???), or even Office Tools team, yeah…I have sooo many questions, thoughts, suggestions. It’s just that I keep asking myself if investing $2000 in TechEd is where I want to be placing my bets. It’s a tough call. And that’s why TechEd is in third place in my book.
Now here’s the funny part: As a developer interested in Tablet PCs, in pushing the state of the art in user interfaces, with a passion for Robotics, with an addiction to tracking online news and community conversations , and on and on, you’d think that there’s so much alignment between my interests and Microsoft’s that there’d be something at a Microsoft event like TechEd that would drive me to attend. Again, not for $2000 there isn’t.
Don’t feel sorry for those putting on TechEd though. I bet there will be lots of attendees. There are lots of people using Microsoft technologies. So it makes sense that at a Microsoft-sponsored event there will be a lot people attending. There are a lot of people’s who’s salaries and businesses are built around Microsoft tech. It’s just for me, there’s no excitement for me around TechEd this year. Hopefully PDC will not fall into the same boat.
As we approach WWDC, the Apple rumors and chatter is increasing. Just watch TechMeme for a day or so and you’ll see what I mean.
Yesterday there was talk of an Intel exec supposedly stating that Apple was going to come out with a larger iPhone device running an Atom processor. There was good reason to be skeptical. No one in the industry leaks information like this. Especially not in front of a crowd. There might have been something poorly stated, but I doubt it was meant to signal to the markets that there was a forthcoming product from Apple.
This won’t stop the Apple MID or mini-Tablet rumors though. I’ve heard them too–from “inside” industry people too. For a couple years now. Of course, in all this time, there’s not been a Tablet product, so my skepticism grows with each passing month.
Now what I imagine is happening is that Apple is working on various designs and ideas and some of these might be Tablet like. Whether they hit the market is another idea. That makes complete sense.
Apple is tremendously secretive, but my guess is that they’d give a public nod to what they are working on if the idea is going to be a big new direction for them.
So as of today we’re still in the same position we were in yesterday. Will there be a Tablet? A MID? An e-Book reader? Who knows. Stay tuned. The rumor mill has lots more to say.
Gottabemobile and JKOnTheRun are both point to this review of the ModBook slate Tablet from Axiotron.
Sounds like the reviewer wasn’t too sure of the Tablet concept and slates in particular–especially 5.5lb slates. Yeah, how I long for an updated NEC LitePad, but that’s another story.
The reviewer also isn’t sure whether the built-in Apple handwriting technology, called InkWell, is up to par. From my tests I’d agree. Vista’s handwriting reco beats it hands down.
I would agree with the implication of the article though: That a great Tablet has to be designed to be a great Tablet, not just modded together. So, if Apple were to make a Tablet I bet it could create an ever better one. That being said, for artists and those Mac users who are looking for a slate, the Modbook sounds like a pretty good choice. I’d really like to give one a spin.