New tablet rumors and slow news day conspire to cause us to revisit Doug’s Mac nano rumor
A slow news day has turned into a slow news weekend, and with a slew of new “iTablet” rumors surfacing, it is no surprise that Macenstein‘s resident rumor-monger Doug has returned to dredge up his Mac nano and docking station rumor. And if you thought the MacBook Air’s pricing/performance ratio was questionble, wait until you get a load of the “iMac Duo”!
Mac Nano Update
Many may remember my original Mac Nano report – a tablet running a touch version of OS X, but more advanced than what is on the iPhone. This could sit in a dock which essentially turned it into a desktop Mac, connected to a display and keyboard mouse.
Around the same time, another report surfaced showing a tablet Mac that apparently docked by sliding into a slot in the display itself, much like an over-sized optical disc.
Apple often develops concepts so fully they can no longer be called just prototypes – they are practically ready for production. But if the don’t pass the Steve test, they are scrapped.
It would appear the 2nd form factor has been approved, and will be unveiled at an unknown point.
Name: iMac Nano, iMac Duo, iMac Pro
Form: 11″ or 12″ LCD tablet. Approx. 1/3″ thick. Intel Atom processor. SSD. Wi-Fi. Bluetooth. 1 USB 2.0 port. 1 FireWire 400 port. Headphone jack. Battery can be swapped like a laptop. Runs OS X “Touch Plus” – like the iPhone, but more like the desktop OS X, enhanced with some pulldown menus and dialog boxes and a Finder. Other specs unknown.
It’s display mate is either a 17″ or 20″ LCD that resembles strongly the current iMac. The “chin” – the expanse of aluminum across the front – is not as tall, and the aluminum finish is darker and more matte overall. On the left side is the optical drive slot; on the right side is the slot the tablet docks into. Then you have access to a second internal standard hard drive and Gigabit Ethernet and more ports. It reboots into desktop OS X when docked (or perhaps wakes from sleep) but uses the same user account. Charges when docked, or via a USB adapter like the iPhone.
Tablet does not use a stylus. A keyboard/mouse can be used if desired. Will not be a phone. Will be, in essence, a giant iPod.
Expect a premium of $800-$1,200 over the current iMac, depending on configuration.
i still don’t know why the blogosphere and analysts continue to resurface rumors of the iTablet. seems like after the appleTV, the iPhone and MacBook Air were announced, the rumormill speculates that apple is going to bring out ‘the next big thing’ to show how much great gadgets they are conjuring up.
its as if noone realizes that apple only takes established products that don’t sell well because of poor UI design and makes them useable while having great industrial design on the front end.
Oh Doug…
So, is this the Duo rebirth?
Jason O’Grady at macworld.com says his little birdie tells him the tablet will 12″-13″, and have a SuperDrive and GPS. GPS maybe. But I will tell why my info say this approach was aborted – too large, too heavy, too short battery life. A model with a SuperDrive was developed, the idea being when “docked” it would become the desktop SuperDrive. But you were still left with a space-consuming and power-hungry SuperDrive when you un-docked the tablet. Jason is also describing a tablet model that does NOT dock to convert into a desktop Mac. This has long been what Steve Jobs considers the deal-breaker for tablets – you are still left with probably needing and using a desktop PC, and transferring files, applications, settings, and user accounts was a seemingly insurmountable problem. So, the dockable tablet was seen as the solution to that. Other PC companies have tried, and failed, to achieve this design solution. Apple, with typical patience and obsessiveness, has created an elegant marriage of hardware and software that will finally crack the tablet barrier.
oooh, darell…..