If you’re interested in the rumoured Apple tablet, forget reading articles from the Mass Media. Instead, check out these three pieces by Apple gurus in the know.
The first, from John Gruber is, as always my favourite. John argues that the Tablet will be
defined by three or four of its built-in primary apps. But long-term, big-picture? It will be to the MacBook what the Macintosh was to the Apple II.
The second piece from John Siracusa called Antacid Tablet makes some concrete, bold preditictions:
The Apple tablet will have a color, video-capable touchscreen, about 10 inches diagonal. It will have flash storage, WiFi networking, and few ports and hardware buttons. There will be a software keyboard. It’s operating system will be based on the same core as Mac OS X and iPhone OS, and its GUI API will be an evolution of Cocoa Touch. The platform will (eventually) be open to third-party developers. You will be able to buy media and applications right on the device using your existing iTunes account. Some of that media will be new territory for Apple: print media like magazines, newspapers, and books.
Lastly, Marco Arment, inventor of the ever popular Instapaper chimes in with his thoughts:
I see two possible outcomes: either Apple has come up with a radical new input method for this form-factor that will overcome the fundamental problems that made every other similar device suck, or the Tablet isn’t this form-factor.
