Netputing

Unexpectedly low Apple iPad price forces notebook vendors to re-evaluate their tablet PC strategies

Notebook vendors include Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International (MSI) have re-evaluated their strategies for the tablet PC market following Apple's launch of the iPad at a consumer-friendly price, according to industry sources.

The vendors originally planned to offer prices pegged at 20-30% lower than the Apple iPad, while they generally expected the device to cost as much as US$1,000. The US$499 entry-level price has caught vendors by surprise and means they will now need to adjust their price scales even lower to attract consumers, the sources pointed out.

However, starting a price war at below US$499 raises concerns that any profitably will be driven out of the nascent tablet PC market, before it even has a chance to take off. Vendors are currently evaluating their strategies hoping to avoid price competition, the sources noted.

via Unexpectedly low Apple iPad price forces notebook vendors to re-evaluate their tablet PC strategies.

Possible picture of Apple iPad?

This might be one of the iPad prototype?

Look like iPhone: Check
Has a home button: Check
Look like 10″ diagonal: Check
Announced docking port at the bottom: Might not be visible

Update: Source for original file: http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/ae335/unanimouswow/Prototype352.jpg

Look like the black borders are symmetrical all around. Could hide the wireless antennas quite well. But there is no docking port… so quite possibly a fake ;-( Look good anyway.

UPDATE 2: OK, Someone pointed the fact that left might in fact be right So what I thought would be the bottom of the unit might be the top, hence no port there to be viewed.

Update 3: Look at the white back of the unit. This could possibly allow people to buy it in different color like it is possible for iPods.

FINAL UPDATE:

This is a real product but not the iPad. I found this other picture of the device from a different angle:

It is the MID 700 from BoEye. The product was shown at Dubai’s GITEX. So now let see what Apple really come out with tomorrow!

Apple iPhone OS 4.0 features detailed! Also, Apple calling tablet the iTablet? « Boy Genius Report

Boy Genius Report is posting what appear to be some of the new iPhone OS 4.0 features. in short expect:

Multitasking
New OS wide multitouch gesture
New UI making the 3G/3GS more like portable computers
New syncing method

Apple iPhone OS 4.0 features detailed! Also, Apple calling tablet the iTablet? « Boy Genius Report.

It's on: Apple holding January 27th event to show off its 'latest creation' -- Engadget

OK, here we go, confirmed Apple announcement of some new creation on Jan 27th at 10AM Pacific time. If there is anything to read from the paint splatter this is going to be artsy and fun!

It’s on: Apple holding January 27th event to show off its ‘latest creation’ — Engadget.

The Dell Mini 5: Dell tablet gets a name - Pocket-lint

The Dell Mini 5: Dell tablet gets a name

Dell’s 5-inch Internet tablet is to be called the Dell Mini 5 according to the company, suggesting that it will fit in its portable products range as the second handset to follow the Dell Mini 3 and slot in under the “Mini” range of netbooks.

Dell told Pocket-lint the news at an exclusive round table event with a handful of journalists at its suite in the Palm's hotel in Las Vegas.

The phone-come-Internet tablet (announced at CES at the Dell press conference on Wednesday) has yet to get a launch date, or in typical Dell teaser style, any tech spec details.

Through further conversations with Dell we've also found out that the new Dell Mini 5 will feature a SIM card slot for use outside of a Wi-Fi hotspot.

via The Dell Mini 5: Dell tablet gets a name – Pocket-lint.

Hands on with MSI’s dual touchscreen netbook prototype

MSI is showing off a netbook prototype with twin 10 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen displays and no physical keyboard. But you can bring up an on-screen keyboard and tap away. What’s interesting is that the keyboard vibrates as you type. It doesn’t quite feel like using a physical keyboard, but it does give you a sense that your fingers have actually touched something. If you find the vibration disconcerting, you can adjust the vibrate level up or down.

via Hands on with MSI’s dual touchscreen netbook prototype.

Samsung notebook with transparent OLED display

: Image via Wikipedia

Samsung is showing off a notebook prototype with a 14 inch transparent OLED display. When the screen is off, it’s up to 40% transparent. And when it’s on, you can clearly see the display, but you can also see right through it.

It could really come in handy is “head-up” displays for vehicles. Samsung says the tech could also be used for eye-catching advertisements and displays, and notebooks like this prototype.

Short video after the break.

Continue reading Samsung notebook with transparent OLED display

Possible Apple iSlate video

Final UPDATE:

OK, move on, this is a fake… bleu screen with Adobe After effect applied. Looked good none the less.

UPDATE 1:

I downloaded the HD version of the video (1st one is 720P and 2nd 1080p) and studied them frame by frame and I must say that the second video appear to show the real deal. You can clearly see the depth of the home button as the tablet move, the shadow of the finger on the glass above the UI, etc, etc.

This is quite possibly the actual iSlate (or wathever name it will have). Continue reading Possible Apple iSlate video (or possibly prototype of)

Apple to release new 3D UI based mobile device OS 4.0?

I have been reading the newly unearthed patent from Apple about the 3D UI… and my conclusion is that Apple won’t just introduce a new mobility device at the end of the month… they will show off what the next iPhone 4.0 OS will be like.

What Apple is about to do is add a new 10 (and possibly 7) inch screen to the iPhone/iPod Touch portfolio. All those devices will be running a new 3D UI. Applications will run on all those devices using a new 3D user interface that is sure to blow people away.

I think Apple is about to re-invent how people interface with applications and OS on their mobile device. The patent application illustrates this. The device depicted in the patent filing to represent the 3D UI is obviously an iPhone/iPod Touch like device… but can surely scale to a much larger 10 inch screen.

We will only know for sure at the end of the month but my bet is that this is what is going to be announced:

New 10 inch based tablet device
New upgraded iPod touch
New 3D UI based OS 4.0

Hidden patent for Apple 3D tech behind the rumored Apple “iSlate” tablet?

BaltThec has unerthed an Apple pattent pointing to a 3D interface for tablet like multitouch devices. This might be the secret sauce for the impending tablet product that Apple is expected to release at the end of the month.

Here is what he has to say:

Some of the recent reports that predict Apple will launch some type of “tablet PC” next month have mentioned that the long-rumored device will have 3D graphics.

So what does “3D graphics” really mean and how could it be implemented? I found a recently-released patent filing which I traced back to Apple (#20090303231, Dec. 10, 2009) and which discusses in great detail a “touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for manipulating three-dimensional virtual objects.” If Apple chooses to incorporate some of the features it outlines in this patent filing, it could essentially mean that that user-interaction experience for the iPhone or a potential “Tablet” will be markedly different in some respects than the iPhone interface we’re currently using. (The image above is taken from Apple’s patent filing.)

According to documents filed with the USPTO, Apple obtained the rights to this patent application from three French citizens: Fabrice Robinet, Thomas Goossens, and Alexandre Moha. The inventors assigned the patent to Apple on Sept. 29, 2008. It’s not clear if those citizens are Apple employees, per se. (Update: Actually, Mr. Moha is a product and engineering manager at Apple, per his LinkedIn profile; and Mr. Robinet is a software engineer at Apple, again, per LinkedIn.) Regardless, searches under Apple’s name in the patents database doesn’t retrieve this patent, because the names of the original French inventors are still on it. (I wonder why that is? Hmmm.

In patent filings, companies typically lay out a current problem or hurdle in a field of technology which they then propose, to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that their new innovation will address.

In this case, the patent application states: “…[T]here is a need for electronic devices with touch screen displays that provide more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for navigating in three dimensional virtual spaces and manipulating three dimensional objects in these virtual spaces.”

So, what is the essence of this patent filing and Apple's interest in it? Let me try and distill it for you:

*) This patent filing is meant to cover the implementation of three-dimensional image-handling on different types of devices, including multi-touch sensitive tablets.

*) The 3D images, or “virtual objects,” that can be generated include an icon, a virtual game object or a virtual game character. Basically, your icons and characters on this device will have a three-dimensional quality in a two-dimensional space, which could lead to novel ways of interacting with the device.

Perhaps this – 3D graphics — is the future of Apple's interfaces for its portable multi-function devices. What do you think?

via BaltTech: The 3D tech behind the rumored Apple “iSlate” tablet? – Gus Sentementes covers digital tech and innovation in Baltimore and beyond – baltimoresun.com.