Tag Archives | Tablets

Name the Apple Tablet, Win a $100 Apple Store Gift Card

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 29, 2009 at 11:18 am

When the biggest news story involves speculation about the name of a product that may or may not exist, you know it’s a slow news week. So let’s turn iLemons into iLemonade and have a little contest.

What will Apple name its tablet? Please register your guess by adding a comment to this post–one guess per entrant, please. Once the tablet is unveiled–assuming it does get unveiled–we’ll check all the comments. And if anyone got the name right, we’ll give that person a $100 Apple Store gift card. (Consider it a down payment on the Apple tablet if you like.)

It’s OK to guess a name that someone else has already entered–if more than one person has the right name, we’ll do a random drawing that will include everyone who predicted correctly.

If you can’t think of a name that seems likely–well, enter one that seems unlikely. Or wholly implausible. (It’s possible you’ll still have a shot at winning–see rule #3 below.)

The fine print:

1. The names “iSlate,” “iGuide,” and “Magic Slate” are being widely bandied about; you can enter them, but you might just end up being one of many. We’d love to see other names get nominated, too–lots of them.

2. We’ll judge the contest and announce a winner–if anyone gets it right–within 48 hours of the day Apple actually announces the tablet, if it does.

3. If Apple announces a tablet and nobody got the name right–or December 31st, 2010 comes and Apple still hasn’t announced a tablet–we’ll do a random drawing that includes all entrants.

4. If you enter more than one guess, your entries are disqualified.

5. The judges’ decision is final.

6. Be sure and use a real e-mail address when you leave a comment; it won’t show up publicly, and we’ll only use it in the event that you’ve won the contest.

7. Have fun!

93 comments

Is It iSlate?

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 25, 2009 at 11:49 pm

I’ve been enjoying the holiday (Merry Christmas!) and refraining from blogging today, but I’d be remiss if I let any more time pass without a quick acknowledgment of the flurry of speculation that the Apple tablet–the one we don’t officially know exists yet–will be called the iSlate. There seems to be plenty of evidence that Apple’s interested in that name, but that’s not definitive proof that the tablet will get the moniker. It might just mean that Apple’s pre-emptively taking steps to prevent anyone else from using it.

There does seem to be a certain logic in the name, though, if we assume that the tablet is more akin to a giant iPod Touch than a keyboardless Mac. It’d be startling if it didn’t have the “i” prefix, for one thing. And it would be equally startling if it did have “tablet” in its name–that word brings to mind all sorts of specific assumptions about form factor, input methods, and the like, most of them associated with Microsoft’s failed Tablet PC. An Apple tablet would likely be radically different from the Tablet PC in most ways that matter, so why suggest a link through a similar name? Especially when you could use a different term that you’ve trademarked, so you don’t find yourself competing with knockoff “slates?”

Oldtimers like myself will remember other examples of the use of “slate” as a synonym for “tablet”–most notably Slate Corporation, an early-1990s company which made applications for Microsoft’s first failed tablet platform…

11 comments

How Big Should a Tablet Be?

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 23, 2009 at 12:04 pm

The Boy Genius Report has a post up with the title “Apple tablet definitely coming in 7″ size?” Seems to me that the uses of “definitely” and a question mark in the same headline cancel each other out. Either Apple is doing a 7-inch tablet or it isn’t. We just don’t know yet. (Boy Genius says the source of the rumor has been amazingly accurate; oddly enough, nobody ever publishes an Apple rumor and says that it comes from a source that’s erratic and unreliable.)

But the “news” does present an opportunity to ponder what size an Apple tablet–or any tablet–should be. I think we can definitively say that it needs to be enough larger than the iPhone and iPod Touch (which have 3.5-inch screens) to be a distinct beast, and that it needs enough resolution to handle modern Web pages without excessive zooming (let’s say 1024 pixels of resolution, at least on its longer side). E-readers like the Kindle are in the right ballpark, but their displays are a tad on the cramped side if you’re going to be using an on-screen keyboard much. So yes, seven inches sounds logical enough.

But you can feel free to disagree with me:

7 comments

CrunchPad, JooJoo, Whatever

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 7, 2009 at 1:52 pm

I like writing about gizmos a lot more than soap operas, so when the dream that was the CrunchPad crumbled into a spat between former partners, I sort of lost interest. For the record, Fusion Garage, which decided to pursue the Web-tablet project without TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, announced its plans today. The CrunchPad is now the JooJoo. It’s $499 rather than $300. And the company will be taking preorders at TheJooJoo.com starting on Friday. That’s assuming that Arrington’s “imminent” legal action doesn’t put a crimp in the release schedule.

If you had high hopes for the CrunchPad, what we’re witnessing is the equivalent of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak squabbling on the eve of the Apple II’s release, and Woz firing Jobs. Or something like that. Anyhow, it’s kind of embarrassing. Bad JooJoo, you might say.

Fusion Garage unveiled the JooJoo this morning in a Webcast which I missed–but which was apparently made up of equal parts product demo and sniping at Arrington. The device has a 12.1″ touchscreen and Wi-Fi (but no 3G). I wish the company well. But what do you think the chances are that the JooJoo will be remembered as anything other than “that gadget was going to be the CrunchPad, and which never amounted to anything?”

3 comments

CrunchPad, We Hardly Knew Ye

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 30, 2009 at 9:12 am

Weird! Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch and father of the CrunchPad tablet computer, has blogged that the CrunchPad project is dead. He says that the manufacturing partner in charge of building the CrunchPad attempted to seize control of the device and cut TechCrunch out of its plans. Joint ownership of the project means that it can’t do so, but Arrington says it’s all over.

Mostly though I’m just sad. I never envisioned the CrunchPad as a huge business. I just wanted a tablet computer that I could use to consume the Internet while sitting on a couch. I’ve always pushed to open source all or parts of the project. So this isn’t really about money. It was about the thrill of building something with a team that had the same vision. Now that’s going to be impossible.

The news of the CrunchPad’s death comes a few weeks after rumors of…the CrunchPad’s death. But according to Arrington’s post, the project began to fall apart after the rumors of early November appeared, for a different set of reasons. (The stories had the CrunchPad being too costly to manufacture to be sold at a reasonable price.)

Arrington has always said that the CrunchPad sprung from his own desire to have a “dead simple” tablet he could use to get online from his couch. I get his desire. Well, mostly: I’ve never been entirely clear why the CrunchPad would be a better couch computer than a more typical, versatile cheap portable computer. (I’ve owned a bunch of my own personal CrunchPads over the years–they’ve just been clamshell shaped, had keyboards, run Windows, and come from companies such as Apple, Asus, and Sony.)

If the CrunchPad was really as close to being ready for prime time as Arrington says–he writes that its makers were about to start taking orders–you gotta think there’s a decent chance that it’s not really dead–only resting. Would you buy a CrunchPad, or something vaguely like a CrunchPad, if it were to come to market?

10 comments

5Words: Tragedy Strikes Beloved Apple Tablet

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 19, 2009 at 8:07 am

God, no: Apple tablet delayed.

Courts: Verizon’s AT&T ads OK.

AT&t’s snarky anti-Verizon ad.

How to improve Office 2010.

Flips to get Wi-Fi soon?

Pre for $80; Pixi, $25.

Trillian for iPhone now available.

ThinkPad Edge: hey, what’s that?

Blu-Ray for $78? That’s tempting.

AOL to shed mucho employees.

Michael Arrington annoys Lance Ulanoff.

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