$3500 will get 13.3in Mac tablet in your mitts
No aversion to conversion?
Years ago, El Reg ran stories concerning rumoured Mac tablets. Apple, of course, never made one and eventually released the iPad instead. But in 2007, US Mac upgrade seller OWC offered to convert an iBook into a tablet for you. Five years on, another company is having a go, this time with a 13.3in MacBook Pro.
If you really fancy carrying a 2.1kg tablet around rather than a laptop, you can now ask Modbook to make one for you. That involves buying the company’s conversion kit and paying it to adapt the MacBook Pro, which it will buy on your behalf, into tablet form.
For now at least, it’s not selling the kit, which “requires professional assembly by Modbook”, on its own. Modbook has to provide you wish a fresh warranty too, as the conversion voids the Apple one, of course. You get “a limited hardware warranty on your Build Kit with a warranty-equivalent service plan for your Base System”, says Modbook.
Prospective punters also have to agree to five separate Ts&Cs before Modbook’s website will let them order the darn thing.
Orders require an immediate deposit of $500 with the remainder to be taken from your credit card ten days before your tablet will be ready to ship.
And the grand total: $3499 (£2172), which is $1199 for the 2.5GHz, 4GB MacBook Pro and $973 for parts and assembly, assuming Modbook isn’t paying dealer prices for the Apple hardware. Pay an extra $300 and you can have your tablet made from the 2.9GHz, 8GB MBP.
Shipping is extra. For now, Modbook is shipping only into US territory, but desperate European, Australasian and Asian fanboys can make use of US-based re-shipping services. ®
COMMENTS
>Dumb, dumber and Apple buyers I guess?
Its a niche product for people doing a specific job. It is basically an excellent portable Photoshop device. People (or more likely, their company) wouldn't buy it if it didn't save them time and money, and it will anyway be deducted from their tax bill. If you can point us towards an alternative device that does the same for cheaper, please do let us know.
- Etched surface for paper-like feel
- Low-sparkle, non-glare glass
-Wacom® pen tablet digitizer
- Pen pressure: 512 levels
- Recognition rate: 133 points/second
- Recognition resolution: 0.01mm
>And the grand total: $3499 (£2172), which is $1199 for the 2.5GHz, 4GB MacBook Pro and $973 for parts and assembly
DOES_NOT_COMPUTE
If you have the money, why not?
I guess there are worse things to spend your money on. However looking at that, it has stylus and didn't somebody once say "If you see a stylus, they blew it?" ;-)
Paris because if you have that much money...
There's a difference between 'touchscreen' and 'pen digitizer stuck over an LCD' and it's several orders of magnitude.
