The Giant iPod Touch Theory: I Don't Know if I Buy It, But I Like It
By Harry McCracken | Friday, March 20, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Is Apple getting ready to release a tablet that’s essentially an oversized iPod Touch? I don’t know, and neither do you. And neither does media blogger Rex Hammock. But he’d sure like to see such a gadget–and he has a fun post up theorizing that it might show up in the next 45 days. He’s not an analyst and doesn’t run an Apple rumor site, so he’s not declaring it to be fact. It’s just a theory–he calls this piece a “guessay.” But it’s nicely fleshed out, with details like the price point ($500), the size (about the size of a letter-size piece of paper), the primary target audience (college students, who’ll use the device to read interactive textbooks, as well as for fun stuff), and even the launch event (read the post!).
I have no idea if Rex’s guessay will turn into reality, but it would be nice if it did. I do think there’s at least a reasonably decent possibility (how’s that for intentionally vague wording?) that Apple will release something in the coming months that competes with netbooks, at a slightly higher price than a typical netbook, without being a netbook. And I think it’s something close to a dead certainty that there will eventually be devices based on the iPhone OS that are at least a little more like traditional PCs in size and purpose than today’s iPhones and iPod Touches (or is that iPods Touch)?
My biggest question about the device I’m now thinking of as the iHammock (I can’t call it the iRex–there’s already an e-reader by that name) is simple: Is there any way to build one as thin as Apple would make it, and still deliver adequate battery life?
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March 22nd, 2009 at 5:21 pm[…] The Giant iPod Touch Theory: I Don’t Know if I Buy It, But I Like It Is Apple getting ready to release a tablet that’s essentially an oversized iPod Touch? I don’t know, and […] […]
March 20th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I own a kindle 2, but I would still buy one of these in a heartbeat. If only they were actually available.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Thanks for the shout-out, Harry. I once though of getting an iRex, just for the name.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:21 am
Your image is hilarious! Did you throw that together in 10 seconds?
March 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Look at the Plastic Logic Reader: http://www.plasticlogic.com.
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
In college now and I would seriously consider to buy if it had tablet pc features(aka taking notes), oh and printing those notes. If I know Apple, if it was worthy enough to take notes it probably would not have the ability to print.
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 am
Could they make one with decent battery life? One word: ARM.
Check out that demo of the ARM-based slates and netbooks from CEBIT recently. The prototypes they put together look exactly like the sort of thing Apple would want to produce: impossibly slim and sleek and lustworthy.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 am
Hmmmm, not sure about this product.
May 15th, 2009 at 9:45 am
I’d be all over a device like this. It would be perfect for photographers and still mobile enough to be a personal music player at work and in cars. There would be a ton of new peripherals created for it and I’d bet that an entire new set of apps would be generated specifically for the larger screen. Of course, I’d also use it like a Kindle to read both books and graphic novels/comics.
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