Monday, January 4, 2010

iTablet? iSlate? idunno...

So what's up with this impending release from Apple? Speculations run from it being a netbook with iPhone capabilities to a whole new breed of portable with it's own OS?

Honestly I think it will be a Kindle / Sony Reader killer with Wi-Fi, GPS and talk capability. What I'm most interested is how they will handle a keyboard and navigation. From what I've read the screen size is anywhere from a 6 inch to a 10 inch. Way too small to draw on if you decide to use it for sketching and/or graphics work. (at least for me)

And then again, can you even draw on it? Will it be Wacom based and compatible with their pens? Personally I don't see a need for such a device. But that was what we said about a little box called the iPod. Of course we all know how that turned out.

3 comments:

Steve Curcuru said...

I'm wondering how comics will look on it. Besides that I'm doubting pen input... But fingerpainting with the Alias Sketchbook app might be fun.
They can have my Wacom pen when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!

Charles Allen Harris said...

Yeah, it all seems wonderful, this dawning age of touch tablets, but this device (as cool as I'm sure it will be) doesn't get me what I want - a real drawing slate from Apple. It's looking more and more like I'm finally going to pull the trigger on a ModBook some time this year. Though, I have to admit, even that prospect seems uncertain - the wind really seems to have gone out of the sails of Axiotron trying to keep up with the changes in Apple's line of Macbooks (already 6 months or so past due for their original ModBook Pro target and no ModBook design in sight for the new unibody Macbook).

sigh

Louie del Carmen said...

Yeah Steve, I doubt there will be pen input from Apple directly. But there could be a third party which might offer such an input device although I don't think it'll be Wacom. But one can dream...

Agree with you as well Allen. The simplest, most compact and lightly portable machine i've seen are thet tablets made my Motion Computing. Downside to those is you have to deal with Windows. The Modbook is the closest thing right now mac wise. I was a Macworld last year when they where touting the Modbook Pro. I know Andreas Haas and his team over at Axiotron are completely frustrated not being able to release it sooner. But they are solid and ultra talented group so I know they will work around it and deliver an amazing product. I'm already thinking about getting one....