You know that Apple tablet you keep hearing about? Rumors are flying, pointing to everything from Apple's answer to netbooks to this latest, a game system. It's actually both, according to one person who claims to have seen the device; it's a netbook that plays games.
This big-assed 10-inch iPod touch screen thing will sync and Wi-Fi stream from other devices in your home, says the unnamed analyst that peeped it. He says that it was actually designed to play games on, though no specifics of how this works were given.
I find it easy to believe that Apple would create a device that cashes in on their App Store. I'm kind of hoping for games that have a bit more depth than your average iPhone game, but I suppose having blown-up existing App Store titles would be pretty cool as well.
I wonder how much this thing is going to cost.
[via Joystiq]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
2:40 PM on 08.04.2009
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Whoa. That was weird. Well, now that I'm back to normal, I can say that this looks to be very intriguing.
Ummm........no.
Anyway, sounds about right with Apple's current pricing scheme. More expensive than the iPhone, but close enough to $499 to perhaps grab some netbook sales.
I still wonder how this is going to affect their core laptop business. Would a media tablet have a stripped down OSX like the iPhone to keep driving regular laptop purchases?
Confirmed to be Ugly, Expensive, Over-hyped and riddled with I'lltrytocontrolallthemusicyoulistentotunes.
Gamers can't even seem to justify the 400$ for a PS3, let alone the 700-800$ this thing is rumoured to cost (but considering how overpriced Apple products are then 800$ seems just about right). And seeing how we're talking about Apple, they're only going to offer an Atom (hopefully some dual-core variant) with two gigs of RAM and the cheapest integrated graphics from ATI or Nvidia, nowhere near as powerful as a dedicated console.
Maybe something dedicated to casual gamers, but then again i can't see any casuals choosing this over the iPhone/iPod Touch or the Zune HD with Tegra, Creative Zii and Snapdragon equipped portable devices.
Meanwhile, the touchscreen is actually an impediment for most single-player designs, as iPhone developers have found. Problem is, the iPhone is too small to be practical for two or three or four players to play at once.
Summed it up for me. This is gonna be dumb
Think about who's Apple's target audience is? As long as it's cute, easy to use, and compact -- it will be a hit.
2) It won't have an Atom. It will be an Apple-owned subsidiary that manufactures the processor, according to most rumors.
3) Nobody games on those cheap underpowered netbooks which run a comparable size, so I don't know why people are whining.
4) The iPhone has more GPU power than the Wii, but this doesn't seem to hurt Nintendo's sales at all. An iTablet wouldn't need a hardcore graphics engine. The PSP has gotten along just fine without one.
5) Nobody has suggested this will kill the PSP or the DS, or any other platform, but with a stand of some kind, and maybe a wireless controller or something, it might make a decent game system. The Apple app store has proven that there are plenty of games that run great with just a touchscreen interface.
Apple's prices are fair game, but don't be stupid.
i've been slowly feeling the ominous siren song of the iphone lately...yikes.
Oh... the Macbook Air is just a waste of time. So we're in total agreement there. It's not a "REAL" computer at all. However, I don't think the "iTablet will fail", it will be overpriced YES, again we're in agreement. They should not ask for more then $300 bucks, but I KNOW they will ask for more.
It's the target audience that Apple is going for, which is NOT US. Artist, Teens, Housewives, Mac Fanboys, Book snobs, people with extra cash who want to show off, and Non-tech people. Apple will throw that new Snow Leopard OS on it and market it as the "iPhone for everyone" People will eat it up. Again, NOT US.
You can add students to that list. I would love a decent tablet for taking notes in college. It's smaller, and I'm sure it would weigh less than 4 notebooks. How many decent tablet PCs can you think of in that price range? And how many of those run OSX or some other variant? Zero.
I'm sure it would be similarly useful for meetings and other business needs.
You can generalize all you like, but Apple makes decent products with usability in mind. And there's a market for a good re-envisioning of the tablet PC, as there was a good market for a good re-envisioning of the cellular phone.
Just about anybody who owns an iPhone loves the device, if they do not love the price, and I wager if you'd ever owned a recent Apple product, you'd STFU.