Leaked Video and Images of Apple Tablet – Rumors Deepen

The speculations have deepened further. Earlier, it were predictions about hardware specs and Design. And now the next step, Videos and images claiming Apple Tablet.

The video of this Apple Tablet OS UI vid is real but with strange hardware. All I know is that this is a cool concept.

Note the strange desktop like environment running iPhone apps floating in independent windows, the safari window that fades in, the neat little iPhone UI elements in each window. This looks more like the dev kit, standard part of iPhone SDK. Looks like iPhone Emulator is running different apps in different emulators at same time.

Some of the things going against this video being anything but a hope are the things: a) in the demo of notepad, the iPhone keyboard pops up in only that app’s window instead of across the entire screen, taking advantage of none of the existing real estate, and that the entire experience, some said, could have theoretically been recreated by b) using multiple iPhone emulators from the SDK and c) creating dock icons from the iPhone’s. That makes sense.

Some also believe that this HAS to be fake simply because there is only one way to do a tablet: one app per screen. But the idea that the Tablet is going to be a one app per screen device is not only guess work, but illogical. Why build a bigger screened device only to have it do the exact same thing as a smaller device? but isn’t it easier to allow the Tablet to run multiple instances of mobile apps instead of redesigning gazillions of them for a higher res platform? Otherwise, you’re basically talking about a giant sized version of the iPhone.

Also, look at how the browser window and the map on the right hand of the desktop are bigger than iPhone sized. Can the emulator do that?

The Solid Design Rumor

The Apple Tablet should run the same basic hardware as the iPhone, with extended video Graphics, resolutions probably powered by Nvidia, Thrice the RAM to accommodate larger computing needs, perhaps with more multitasking for some applications. System RAM is a big system bottleneck right now, and it won’t cost much to add enough to make things flow smoother.

The iPhone 3G S CPU and graphic processor can handle all this well as they are. No need for changes. It will also be very thin. As thin as the iPod touch. Since its guts will be the same, but it will be a device with a larger surface, you also have more space for a larger battery.

Job’s Golden Rule

Steve Jobs’ golden rule of re-using components is goig to prevail again, makes our life easier guessing the New upcoming Product, and easier for the end-user. Why? Reusable components across each product family keeps costs down. In this case, the product family—which Jobs already alluded to in the past—is the iPhone OS-based product family. Right now, there are two products, as you know: iPhone and iPod touch. My wish is that iTablet or whatever it’s called will be the third. That way, Apple would be able to build this cheaper—and keep the cost of the iPhone and iPod touch down if the tablet is successful.

The OS:

The Tablet OS will have the same kernel, the same classes, the same subsystems, the same database organization and the same file system. It will also have some new extra apps, and perhaps a few new gestures—which will trickle down the product line—but that’s about it.

It will run the same applications, changed to accommodate more information because of higher resolution  screen. Some Apple and third-party ones will be tailored to the higher res, distributed in a package that will have both iPod-sized and tablet-sized graphic assets. Others—like Safari or games—will just enjoy the instant boost in resolution.

Kindle. Bye Bye.

who needs a dumb screen when you get everything in an Apple product? The answer is obvious.

Developers to joy

For developers, it will be a honeymoon. Same code, just add new assets- new screen compatibility, resizing. Same store, same distribution, more development opportunities.

The way I see it, the tablet will open the way to a new kind of computing, after the ages of computing for hobbyist, the age of the command line, and the age of the desktop user interface metaphor.

Multi-touch will finally take over the conventional ways of input – mouse, keyboard.

Source: Gizmodo