Countdown: Apple Tablet- What is it? Will you want it?

Whatever it is, I will probably buy it day one. I am a total sucker for whatever apple is selling. If it has a Pixel Qi screen, it might be game changing.

I would go nuts if I could actually draw (with a pen) on the device (like a Cintiq).

Totally depends on the price. The rumors have ranged from $1,000 to $2,500 to $1,500 with a contract to a cellular provider for data packages. I loved my Macbook Air when I bought it, and it's a nice laptop for web surfing, which is all i needed it for at the time, but I regret the purchase now. I'm in need of a more heavy duty laptop, which I could easily have bought for what I spent on the Macbook Air. I don't think I can spend another $1000+ on a device I'm just using to surf the web. I can do that on my work computer, my gaming desktop, my Air, and my iPhone. It needs to have something really new.

The Onion broke this one a looooong time ago.

CES was full of slates. All of which cost half of what the Apple slate will likely cost. And yet this shit will sell, sell, sell.

I can also buy a Windows Mobile phone for $99. Why are people buying the iPhone? ONE IS CHEAPER!

As long as Steve Jobs is alive, you know this thing is going to be ridiculously sexy.

It seems like everyone's waiting for the same thing, which is to find out if the Apple tablet is just an oversized iPhone. Or, it could do what the iPod did for .mp3 players and blow every other tablet/slate/ebook out of the water.

At this point, I think Jonathan Ive deserves credit for the sexy. Jobs is the guy who seems to have a sixth-sense for interface design.

To me the interface is the sexy part. Making a tablet look sleek will be easy... just what they have in store software wise is what will set this thing apart. I think being able to write on it is a given.

If this is just a tablet computer, I don't think it's going to be a major success. It either needs to be a generational leap in the technology used in tablets or it needs to be a device that we aren't even aware we need yet. Basically, we've all seen the videos for Microsoft's Courier. That's the target that Apple needs to shoot for.

I'm not an Apple fanatic but MS totally failed in the Tablet space, they have to do a lot of work to get anybody excited about what they're doing.

Google Chrome OS has some potential, but from what I've seen it has a LONG way to go to catch up with what most people would expect from Apple's device in this area.

Yep. I'd draw a lot more if I could do it in front of the TV without paper. I have no money, but I might sell stuff to get one if it works that way.

Oh yeah.

Of course this is not just having a simple drawing app, but integrating into existing programs like Photoshop, etc. Supporting a stylus (with eraser) and enough pressure sensitivity.

I would tolerate if it doesn't do "tilt" like the wacoms, but to me this would be my killer app for such a device.

If it had a little camera, I could trace on top of a video feed or take a quick spanshot of a reference picture or sketch.

It goes unsaid, my friend. I'm addicted to Illustrator.

Steve Jobs hates the stylus.

Is this going to have a beefed up OS? I kept hearing it was the same OS as the iPhone, but I haven't checked in on this week's rumors.

I just want to play this.

Of course he does, as a primary user interface.

But for drawing applications, we're not talking about finger painting here.

Scribblenauts where you draw the item instead of write the word eh.. hmmm. Even has the same "get to the star" mechanic!

This is what it seems like to me, and there are very few things by Apple that leave me just shrugging my shoulders and saying, "Ehhh...". The Airbook was one, this is the other. I just upgraded from my old MacBook to a MacBook Pro in October, and I love it, so the honeymoon isn't over yet. So that could be part of my disinterest in the Apple Tablet. But it does sound like a giant iPhone to me, which - again, I just don't see the point.

There are also strong indications that Apple has gone out of their way to develop new media consumption models to back the hardware. If any of the speculation revolving around their LaLa acquisition and print-media profit deals are true or close to the mark, this will be a very interesting year.

I feel the same way. I love my MacBook Pro, and I have an iPhone and Kindle so I don't even know if I'm in the market to get one of these or what it could do for me. Besides Crayon Physics Deluxe of course.

ETA: At Gizmodo they're saying the tablet won't have any kind of camera, webcam or otherwise. I thought that was something that would be included as a no-brainer, but I guess not.

There are three things that the Slate needs to do in order to become the iPod of the e-reader/publishing market:

1. a) It needs to be in full color, and b) be touchscreen, without losing the properties of electronic ink. Basically, it needs to remove the backlighting. That's what causes eye strain in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason the price is so high is because they've managed to crack this. On the other hand, there are a ton of slates coming out for about the same -- we're selling one at B&N called the Que, which runs around 699, I believe, that's in B&W.

2. The textbook industry needs to play ball. It's very clear that making a 300 dollar textbook available for even 50 dollars as an ebook would destroy the publishers, not to mention resales. There's a lot of politics going on with these things beyond the technology. But since most people are holding off on e-readers until they can do either 1 or 2 (or both), the first e-reader to offer extensive textbook and technical manual libraries is going to be the one that people will buy.

3. It needs to work internationally, across the board. This is probably the hardest, because you're dealing with copyright, and beyond that, you're dealing with (and I'm not entirely sure) contract renegotiation. (This is also why it's hard to find some older authors between the end of the public domain and probably the late 80s, on e-readers.) The Kindle international does this, but I'm not sure how they work -- my assuumption would be you buy a book from the U.S. site, but are charged for import tax on top of whatever you pay for it.

That's just how I see it, from having worked pretty intensely with one of these e-reader devices, and answering a lot of questions/researching both slates and the Tablet, as a result. I'm not an expert. But from where I sit, those are the big three, and that's not even dealing with the massive copyright issues these do and will continue to bring up.

Or the battery issue.

Like all apple products, it's looking like the software and services are going to be make-or-break. But, I still can't get past the screen issue. Reading books on a traditional LCD sucks. If I'm going to be putting my Kindle on Ebay, I need an alternative that comes close to matching the kindle's strengths: battery life and ease of reading.

If apple can conquer those hurdles, this will be one hell of a product.

RE: the art posted above.

Splashes of color everywhere = full-color e-reader/multimedia device. Going right at the perceived (rightly or wrongly) weakness of e-ink displays: monochrome.

Maybe it's some kind of new hybrid display tech or they've treated the glass in some way that will reduce eye strain.

Gizmodo seems to think it will be priced between $600 and $800. At that price I can easily see myself tempted to grab it day one.

Ive heard the name "Canvass". First time i'd heard it but it makes sense.

Apple really are amazing. Theyre releasing this on the back of nearly $3.5bn profit for 2009. And whatever it is, this thing will sell and sell.

iPad

CNN's live Twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/cnntech?hpt=T1

Looks like a giant iPhone.

And probably priced accordingly.

But will it stop the iFlow?

Okay. That looks pretty cool.

WHen does it go on sale?

It can run all iPhone apps out of the box.

It looks cool, but what's it for really? It feels like an iPhone without the phone and a laptop without the memory.

If it's an improved e-book (I use the Kindle app on my iTouch) then it will be worth it.