Brits take iTablet moniker for 12in iPad rival
Camera? Check. Multi-tasking? Check. Flash? Check
Apple may have decided against the appellation 'iTablet' - one of the rumoured names for the product now known as the iPad - but that hasn't stopped UK computer supplier X2 claiming the name for its own.
The iTablet range comprises at least two models: one with a 12in, 1024 x 768 display, the other with a 10.2in screen of the same resolution. Both are based on Intel chips clocked at "up to 1.6GHz with 2GB of cache".
X2's iTablet: has everything the iPad lacks?
Which chip precisely? X2 wouldn't say, but told Reg Hardware that full technical details will be posted in a few weeks' time.
The tablets contain up to 250GB of hard drive storage, three USB 2.0 ports, "optional" HDMI output and - listening, Apple? - a 1.3Mp webcam.
"iTablets are fully equipped with Bluetooth, optional 3G and GSM, as well as built-in 802.11b/g," X2 said.
Size and weight? 252 x 192 x 35mm and 1.18kg, since you ask, so heftier than the Apple alternative.
But the iTablet runs a full-scale, multi-tasking OS: Windows 7.
The iTablet line will go on sale in April, X2 said, and be available in a range of solid and metallic colours including white, grey, pink, blue, red, yellow and black. X2 is keeping mum about the pricing. ®
COMMENTS
Tablet PC's
The reason tablets haven't taken off so far is that they have generally been rubbish, the interface to use them just doesn't work very well.
What Apple have done is made an appliance that does most of what your average internet user wants. They simplify their products, which of course infuriates the kind of people who post on here and Engadget. What people on here fail to realise time and time again is that the vast majority of people out there are not like them, they don't love computers and technology, they simply see them as a means to an end. They don't care if it has 3 USB ports, or if it can multitask, they care that it's easy to use, that it doesn't crash all the time, that it allows them to do what they want to do with the minimum of fuss.
The iTablet is heavy, will have a short battery life and I'd be stunned if it was cheaper than the iPad.
The iPhone and iPod succeeded, not because it was technically superior, but because the software it ran was so much better than the competition. So while on paper, all these PC tablets will seem technically superior to the iPad the user experience will be exactly the same as using a regular PC, and that is the iPads secret weapon, it will be just like using an iPhone or Touch, effortless and elegant.
I would also expect some degree of multitaking in OS 4
Multi-tasking
I like to listen to music when I surf and also have something ntofiy me of new emails/IMs.
Hmm...that's multitasking.
Two questions....
1) Does it have a capacitive touch screen?
and
2) Does it have a UI shell that is optimised for a capacative touch screen?
If the answer to these questions is no, then how is it any better than any of the other windows-based tablets that have failed to achieve any significant success over the last ten years?
Windows is never going to take off on tablets until MS accepts that the UI is fundamentally ill-suited for use with touch screens of any flavour.
OSX does support an accelerometer
OSX does support an accelerometer. I have a screensaver on my mid-2007 MacBook which shows some water to half-way up the screen which moves about as I move my laptop.
To all those who have been waiting for this
you could have bought one for some 8 years now! At CeBit 2001 MS demoed PC's like this with and without keyboard.
