Apple Tablet Release To Redefine Books, Newspapers

[mod mom]

Apple Tablet Release To Redefine Books, Newspapers



Apple is expected to launch its highly-anticipated touchscreen Tablet by early 2010 and new information suggests the gadget could revolutionize print publishing by bringing book, newspaper, and magazine content onto the high-tech reader.
If Apple succeeds, the Tablet could essentially function as an iPod for text: a "print player" that displays textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and more (and which would pose a significant competitive threat to Amazon).
Apple has been negotiating with major print media companies to acquire content for the new device, Gizmodo reports, including the New York Times, McGraw Hill, and Oberlin Press. In addition, Apple seems to be working to beef up print content on its iTunes store.

PHOTOS @ LINK:

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/apple-tablet-release-to-r_n_304283.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I wants me one.

[mod mom]

2. Price expected between iTouch $299 and Macbook $999.

Thankfully my brother works for Apple because I would really like to get one for hubbie. He's the only one in the house w/o a laptop and uses his iPhone to read. I almost bought a kindle but held out based on the Apple rumors.

[Touchdown]

7. The "insider info" rumors says prices between $600-800

Some say two models. One a 6" "Student" model, the other a 9.7" powerhouse. Others say only one, the 9.7. That 10.7" rumor is new as of Today.

There's also rumors of an AT&T subsidy with a data plan contract, which would make the tablet even cheaper.

[Touchdown]

3. Oh' it'll do a lot more than that.

I'm hoping for a touch version of iPhoto, so I can crop and correct my shots before I get home and find that I took 500+ of them on vacation. Doing photos on the fly is perfect for me.

It'll either have a hybrid Snow Leopard/iPhone OS in it, or full blown Snow Leopard.

It'll play movies, surf, hold music, podcasts, probably have bluetooth, as well as 3G capabilities, so a small keyboard can link up for a makeshift word processor. The new iTunes LP was made for this tablet. It will also be a reader, but so much more. Try reading a Spiderman comic on a black and white Sony or Kindle? I think this is the reason Disney bough Marvel Comics. Apple and Disney have a very close relationship, and Apple needed another killer ap for their new machine.

Been following the development of this story for weeks now.

[Deja Q]

5. Thanks for keeping up!

When Apple does something, they

1. Keep constrained to a defined set of features and not deviate
2. Do it well
3. Stay a step ahead of the competition
4. No excessive feature-creep to bog down the system

Yes, they will take other things and put them into their devices (half the time I forget that my iPhone, OMG, has a camera that I'll virtually never use to begin with... It was included, probably just so the anybody-but-Mac-unless-it's-an-illegal-hack wankers would belt up about "Oh the iphone has no camera, it is worthless, wah wah wah.")

Here's hoping for a full Snow Leopard - fantastic upgrade... :D

[Touchdown]

6. Well, I have to agree with those wankers. The iPhone is a shitty camera.

2mp isn't anything worth printing, much less blowing up. It's interface is bad. Tapping the screen to take a shot only shakes the iPhone... very bad for shooting. If one of the side buttons can be programed to work as a shutter release, then the problem wouldn't be as big, but there's still the image sensor itself to contend with. It's distorted colors in low light situations, no flash (that light in the 3GS is a joke) and heavy noise levels make this camera only a toy. For $100 a little pocket Kodak, Nikon or Fuji camera with 5-10mp is much more worthy of carrying around in your pocket. iPhoto is a great piece of software. It's small amount of editing features is good enough for more that 85% of my shots, cutting down editing time dramatically. So only a few have to be photoshopped anymore, which Adobe cannot make speedy enough for me. One of the advantages of getting used to your camera... eventually you take better pictures.

ALthough Snow Leopard would be nice to have on it, I'm more looking for a syncable OS, in the iTunes vein. Not necessarily iTunes itself, but something less convoluted than scooting files back and forth between computers would be right up the Apple simplicity/integration alley. I doubt this is meant to be a stand alone computer like a Macbook, and nobody can dispute the simplicity of iPod syncing. So a seriously beefed up iPhone OS or a syncable Snow Leopard and an "iSlate" software DB like iTunes would be a nice feature.

One other problem with full OSX on this, is battery life. Snow Leopard will be a memory hog and power hungry. By contrast, the iPhone OS is small, and doesn't use that much power for itself. Long battery life on a 10" screen is a pretty tall order in itself, add that to the power consumption of a desktop OS, and your looking at watching half of a movie on an airplane before shut down. I also believe that this thing is going to have flash memory and not a hard drive, so data storage is going to be a at a premium. I imagine we're going to see 128gigs at most on this... unless flash memory prices drop dramatically in the next 3 months.

Most Chinese manufacturers (confirming the making of it now), and "insiders" say it'll be available February, with a Steve Jobs stage show in January. Also confirmed is the 3g chip. The chip will be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile only. Verizon and Sprint use different technologies in their networks. Over the summer, it was rumored that Verizon would get this on their network. Looks like Apple is sticking with AT&T. No word on tethering... AT&T doesn't like it (less money gouging).

Of course being an AT&T employee, they'll probably forbid me from buying one at launch (I get an employee discount on Apple products) like they did with the 3GS. Screw them, I'll just go to the Apple store and pick it up full price and my employer can pay me my check, dust my desk and STFU. I do enough for them already.

[Deja Q]

8. Apple shouldn't have bothered with the integrated camera; they were appeasing people who said

Apple is "behind the times" and other lines...

I've never understood the logic in having an integrated camera - there isn't any cell phone with such a camera that's anywhere near being good in quality... much less flash, optical zoom, and other not-so-useless features. (I think we're on two different levels)

Nice to hear about T-Mobile. Verizon sucks, and not in a good way.

I too would not want to see a full SL on an iPhone. My MBP fares well with SL on it, but I never really used it with 10.5.8 to really know the difference in battery life.

That's sad that you can't get the latest gear just because you work for them. It's not like you're entering a company-sponsored contest or anything... :(

[Touchdown]

9. Oh' crap! I just re-read your first post. I must've taken too much Advil.

Got a thrown back *OUCH!* Sorry about that. I thought you were calling people who didn't like the camera wankers. You mean wankers if it didn't have one. Yeah, my Blackberry, which I hated didn't have one, I don't think I ever needed it.

It basically started with the first iPhone. AT&T (Old LD company) didn't offer an employee discount at first because of demand, but they didn't stop us from buying them full price. Same for 3G. Now under the NEW AT&T (Giant Texas HQ'd Octopus International), sales of the 3GS (on our own employee website or AT&T stores) were restricted to non-employees only "So that every one of our loyal customers may have an opportunity to own this very in demand new iPhone". Tantamount to forbidding us from buying the thing. I saw the e-mail (where they also "advised" us to not buy them at Apple's site or store), and you wouldn't believe the shit storm in my office that caused!

I'm a big ole' shutterbug, so this new tablet would be great if I could do some storage and editing with it in the hotel rooms. I have this $400 (at the time) EPSON media storage unit with a 30g HD in it, but it has no editing features, and it's pretty slow. Waste of money.

One sad story about those phone cameras. I walked into the Lincoln Memorial. It was crowded. A tour bus had just dropped off a bunch of teenagers and they scampered up the steps. There he was. The experience of seeing how massive and awe inspiring Lincoln's statue is is really beyond description. No images in any coffee table book actually impressed me nearly as much as standing right in front of him. I try to get all angles (including his crotch, a source of jokes for my friends). I maybe too about 30 shots of Lincoln alone. When I'm shooting, I'm usually in a zone, completely blocking out anything else around me. I turn around and I see hundreds kids standing in front of it, yapping, gossiping, and being teens, but they all had their cellphones stuck up in front of them clicking those crappy little toys, and they didn't care. I thought it was such a way to cheapen the moment for them.

[Deja Q]

4. Sweet! For the field I'm studying for, this is too damn perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



!




Pity I just splurged for a Mac Pro so it'll be easier to work on animations for class (and later for professional ad design projects so I can make money to pay back tuition more quickly!! :D )

[alfredo]

10. Mac Rumors says that magazines are already gearing up for the Apple tablet

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/05/magazine-industry-already-preparing-for-possible-apple-tablet/


I will believe it when I see it.

[Lost-in-FL]

11. I have a Sony Reader and very disappointed with that.

I am holding myself from buying a Kindle because of apple rumours but I would not pay more than $500. I can't wait for what apple have in store.

[supernova]

12. Is it really just an outsized iPhone or iPod?

or does it have the functionality of a computer, being that it has the on-screen keyboard?

[Touchdown]

13. Yes, and more... apparently

http://gizmodo.com/5335942/an-insider-on-the-apple-tablet

"The device, which I've held mock ups of, is going to have a 10 inch screen, and when I saw it looked just like a giant iPhone, with a black back— although that design could change at any time" they said, "with the same black resin back, and the familiar home button." That's obvious.

"But it will come in two editions, one with a webcam and one for educational use."

Educational use?

They continued to explain the device as something that would sit between an iPod/iPhone and a MacBook, and would cost $700 to $900—"More than twice as much as a netbook," they said.

To make up for that cost and make the device more than just a big iPod there was, this person claimed, there was talk of making the device act as a secondary screen/touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, much like a few of the USB screens that have come out in recent months from Chinese companies. Very interesting.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. The price point is a tad too rich for me

[alfredo]

15. Robert Cringely on the possible tablet.

http://www.cringely.com/2009/10/apple-and-the-future-of-publishing-–-part-one/
http://www.cringely.com/2009/10/apple-and-the-future-of-publishing-part-two/

[Touchdown]

16. And the rumors keep coming. This time it's a TV player, not books.

Here's what Abramsky reports, in analyst shorthand, about that portion of the conversation: "Video/Content Opportunities. After music, video content is expected to be the next "exploding" opportunity, but requires overcoming industry rights dysfunctionality, competing with subsidies (cable box, video), and developing the right consumer 'offer.' Apple TV, while still a 'hobby,' is well positioned to benefit from evolving market dynamics. Apple was less enthusiastic about the online book/newspaper market, given unattractive industry structure."

Elmer-DeWitt writes, "Sounds like they expect an Apple tablet — should they be building one — to be used a lot more for watching movies than for reading novels and newspapers."

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/22895/

MediaMemo today reported that Apple has been shopping a $30/month, all you can watch TV service to the networks that would compete with Hulu and to a lesser extent cable. The service would be built into iTunes and run across all of Apple's products. To me this has tablet written all over it.

-snip-

Apple also has a new very lightweight HTTP web streaming protocol that adjusts bitrates on the fly, depending on what kind of speed you are getting. Apple also released a new file format recently called iFrame that is 1/4 of 1080P. This size isn't going to impress anyone who wants to watch full length movies, but watching TV shows at this resolution (which is better than standard 480P) would be a good experience. Especially if the device had a screen bigger than an iPod, say around 10 inches?

That's right, I think this TV thing Apple is on is about the tablet. Would it be the killer app? Probably not, but it would certainly be a great addition to the tablet's package. Taking your TV on the road and watching your favorite shows outside or in the car would be the benefits. The anti-couch potato.


http://blogs.computerworld.com/15027/apples_30_per_month_tv_service_woudl_fit_tablet

Of course the books are coming too...



While the iPhone platform has proven attractive to game developers, e-books have begun to dominate the latest apps, according to data collected by Flurry. From August 2008 to August 2009, most of the new apps were released into the Games category. Starting in September, however, the Books category took the lead for the first time in the App Store's history.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/11/02/iphone.to.be.formidable.opponent.to.the.kindle/

Remember Disney buying Marvel Comics?

http://panelfly.com/

[alfredo]

17. If a tablet comes out it will be more like a media center. You will be watching

movies, videos, and TV on it. It will also be able to surf, and work as an eReader. I think the eReader market is not as big as Apple would want it to be, so they are jumping ahead to delivery of Television on hand held devices.


As it is now, if I want to watch HBO, I have to be where the cable is plugged in. If Apple can free a person from a location, that would be a big change.

[Touchdown]

18. and PORN!!!!

Don't forget the Pornos!:evilgrin: