The Apple Tablet or Apple Touch? | Jimboland Jots

The geek-o-sphere has been rife with rumor and speculation regarding Apple’s next big paradigm-shifting network device. Mashable writer, Barb Dybwad, titled her latest article about these devices, “The Age of the Internet Tablet is Nigh“. Call it the Apple Tablet or the Apple Touch, either way it will be a ubiquitous technology that has the potential to liberate computer users from being anchored to a desktop or an otherwise stationary networked access point. Folks are speculating that with e-reader capabilities, traditional print media – newspapers, books, and magazines – will migrate for survival to Tablet platforms.  Digitimes is reporting that Foxconn has a projected release timeline for the 1st quarter of 2010. Apple has rented a stage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for Wednesday, 27 January 2010, to make a major product announcement. With this much chatter about a rumored device, we predicts the Tablet will be available in the 1st quarter of 2010.

Gizmodo has its typically great article with much circulating geek information about this new piece of Apple gadgetry. Here is Gizmodo’s post and Mashable’s gallery of pix. Price is projected to be between $650-$800 USD. iLounge, however, has the scoop from its highly reliable insider source: check out 10 New Details on the Apple Tablet, with much new information.

The Apple Tablet could do for data access what the iPhone did for smartphones. As well, with a proposed built-in 3G and soon 4G wireless service, the device could start the trend toward practical devices used to access the data cloud in daily life. Consider the data padds in Star Trek, where every sentient race had them and they were used in literally every setting: is this future now on us? With the rapid convergence of augmented reality, tablet devices will soon be ubiquitous and afford universal data cloud access, along with electronic health management tools, adjunctive human memory features, and immediately recognized devices for home audio, video, and house electronics, as well as ultimately providing videophones. Could we be witnessing the replacement soon of mobile phones, laptops, notebooks, and desktops?

Star Trek PADD: Does it look familiar?

Mashable’s and The Mac Observer’s list of probable technologies for the Tablet include:

• 10 inch touchscreen
• on screen keyboard
• no phone service or 3G/4G
• wireless connectivity like iPod to iTunes
• e-reader/e-book capabilities
• front-facing camera (hello, video!)

Given that Apple has just brought back Michael Tchao, one of the original Apple Newton developers, this device’s technological reach is assured. Another well-designed and practical hardware device from Apple will shape future information and creative technologies. One question: does this now mean that our smartphones will slowly disappear, as the Tablet or Touch could have videophone capabilities? 2010 could be another year that reshapes how and with what convergent technologies we will communicate with each other.

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