From Safari Pad to iPhone and Back Again
Many of the latest rumors about the Apple iTablet/iSlate involve it being a large iPhone, or as Daring Fireball points out, the iPhone being a smaller version of an older Apple tablet project. Way back in June of 2007, the New York Times mentioned just that, and the tablet project was Safari Pad:
Mr. Jobs seized on the multitouch technology after Apple product designers proposed it as a “safari pad,” a portable Web surfing appliance. Instead, he saw the technology as something that could be used for a similar purpose in a cellphone, a former Apple employee said.
We’ve linked to those stories and that name several times over the years, and while we doubt an actual shipping Apple tablet will still be called Safari Pad, given the state of the rumors, Gruber’s point (linked above) is salient:
The Tablet is what Apple set out to build all along, and the iPhone was an offshoot that shipped first because the technology wasn’t there yet to produce The Tablet. In short, that Apple has had something bigger in mind — both physically and conceptually — from the outset.
Gruber’s also heard there won’t be a camera or webcam in the tablet, but we’re still keeping our fingers crossed.
Either way, it’s looking more and more like the “next big thing” for Apple is tightly connected to the iPhone.
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Funny how a side project came the biggest hit of 07-09
Ok. Tell us something new. This is the same stuff you’ve been feeding us for weeks now.
@Rene:
Is that iSlate concept’s screen size an actual 10″ relative to the iPhone in front of it?
It looks a little large to me.
I have a feeling that the amount we speculate will not equate to what is actually in the Tablet.
Omari James:
Did you mean to say it won’t live up to all the third party hype? (Because that’s not what you said).
I am beginning to suspect it will be sort of a mildly more powerfull eReader with Apps and wifi.
Apple isn’t going to release anything that doesn’t have ipod and iTunes capability built in (including Video playback). Its going to be tied tightly to the iTunes store.
A souped up iPod/Touch is looking more and more like the model to expect.
quote: “Funny how a side project came the biggest hit of 07-09″
Well, the Macintosh was also “a side project” at Apple in the early ’80s. The Apple /// and the Lisa were the main projects while the Apple // was the cash cow. It became bold when Steve took over it but Sculley always was almost against it.
I’ve been following many Apple product launches in the past and the speculations piling up before them and I’ve learned that Apple is quite conservative actually. There will be no magic and no really new technology, believe me. I expect two devices: A supersized iPod touch (no GPS, no camera, WiFi only) and a supersized iPhone (3G, camera, GPS). Add “one more thing” and something fresh and sexy (useful or not) in the UI and that’s it. The real added value will be the store, which may get newspapers, magazines and books in addition to music, movies and apps. Quite enough for me…
My god, this fscking blog censored s-e-x-y in my post above…
So, based on rumors, either Steve Jobs never really cared for the tablet because he couldn’t figure out what someone would want to do with one, until some unknown event took place, or he wanted a tablet all along.
Safari Pad? ***, iSlate? Bor-ing (you might as well call it the ichalk board or iAbacus). My money is on iPad. Follow the progression… iPod, iPhone, iPad (maybe iPad Touch)? Nah…
Well if the iPhone is only the sideshow, were in for something pretty special!
Ok, once and for all, there WILL be a camera for the iTablet. Remember that there would have been a camera for the iPod Touch, before it was pulled in the 11th hour. A camera is in all iMacs and MacBooks and iPhones. It is accommodated in iPhone OS 4.0, and would be unthinkable not to have one. Why Gruber is saying this is beyond me.
there is a leaked video of the apple tablet os 2 somanyphones.com
Where has all the speculation been on the eye tracking technologies that Apple acquired in 2007, and which are the conspicuously not-yet-implemented technologies in their 30 page UI patent from 2008?
http://bit.ly/5J0F9Q
Not that I think this will be the bombshell on January 27th, but, if we are going to have months of fanboy drooling on the tablet, we might as well change subtopics every now and then
Icebike what did I say ?
Ofcourse there won’t be a camera in the iSlate. That’s half the reason we are going to get the second generation iSlate.
Exactly. Beutifully designed, but lacking core features. It’s the Apple way.
Jhonny … you make a good point.
Ok i agrée
Well if this iTablet rumors are true, wouldn’t that basically kill off any hope for an HD iPhone. Apple likes to keep things simply. They want you to buy devices. If you want a portable HD apple experience, get the iTablet, for your quick on the go device, get the iPhone. Developers won’t have to worry about making an HD iPhone app and make a seperate one for the regular iPhone, they just make iPhone apps, then the tablet apps.