iSlate

Breathless Apple name rumor: It's the iPad

With every dribble of information that slithers out about Apple's purported tablet, we drool with an anticipation normally only reserved for a Charlie Sheen relationship story.

The whole world now assumes that Apple's "latest creation," to be unveiled in San Francisco January 27, will be a multifarious, multitalented, multimedia tablet. But what will it be called? While some digital espionage agents are still in the highly imaginative iTablet camp, there is a relatively new naming rumor from the whisperers at MacRumors.

Having no doubt worked their iPhones to within one step of the mortuary and their … Read more

Apple lawyer confirms tablet existence?

Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag on Wednesday issued a call for readers to send in photos of the Apple tablet, in exchange for a cash prize of up to $100,000. On Thursday, Apple's own lawyers responded with something almost as good as pictorial evidence of the yet-unannounced device: a cease-and-desist letter.

Attorney Michael C. Spillner of prestigious Silicon Valley firm Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe dashed off a letter to Valleywag's parent company, Gawker Media, beginning with this:

"I am writing on behalf of Apple regarding the notices on Gawker.com and Valleywag.com Web sites that Gawker Media will pay someone a financial reward for sending you photos, video, or a sample of an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product."

While it's not actually a confirmation, the letter, chock full of claims of infringements on Apple's trade secrets, does lend credence to the endless speculation that the device--"an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product"--does actually exist.

There are hundreds of bits of speculation that float around the Internet on a daily basis related to Apple. It's not often that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company responds--surely it does not mind all of the free marketing that results from the endless speculation about its products. But when it does respond, particularly with threats of legal action, it's a strong hint that the person or blog is on the right track.… Read more

Apple looms over CES from afar

LAS VEGAS--The most buzzed-about device at CES 2010 wasn't even on display here.

A tablet or slate computer from Apple was basically all anyone wanted to talk about, and it's not even a confirmed product yet. As a result, Lady Gaga might be the only thing that was actually at CES 2010 that could even be described as generating large-scale buzz.

We can partly blame both Apple and Google for this. Google sucked all the air out of the Las Vegas Convention Center Tuesday, two days before this whole show even got started, thanks to its introduction of … Read more

Aha! It's the iGuide, not iSlate--maybe

Because excitement has now reached beyond the red area on the dial, it is important to emit every single possibility about the alleged Apple tablet for instant world examination.

So I am delighted to report that the diligent sleuths at MacRumors have discovered a possible new name for the Apple product that is about to sweep all before it, should it ever actually materialize.

Please now tuck your hands beneath your hamstrings, move slightly further from your screens, and remove all items of sharp jewelry. For the name that, like iSlate, has apparently also been trademarked by a mysterious Delaware … Read more

Apple's iSlate: What we know for sure

"Sherlock Holmes" is not a wonderful movie. Despite the fact that so many ditheringly unstable people in the movie theater I wandered into on Christmas Day applauded when the final scene slithered away.

However, if you were to ask Robert Downey Jr.'s violently amusing Holmes to tell you discern the truth about the new Apple tablet, he would surely repeat his words from the movie: "Data! Data! Data! I can't make bricks without clay!"

So because there are many who are still groggy after the week's festivities, I thought I'd scour around for data that will separate the rumor from the definitive fact.

Apple's new tablet will be called the iTablet. And it will be launched last September. Yes, last September.

But wait, last September was a few months ago. So perhaps that information wasn't quite correct.… Read more

Microsoft, Intel to cede tablet market to Apple?

If the Apple tablet emerges as expected, this will be another big device market, following media players and smartphones, that the PC industry cedes to Apple.

The writing is already on the wall already for Microsoft and smartphones, as spelled out in a previous post and as documented in shrinking market share numbers.

That's not to say that Microsoft, Compaq (later Hewlett-Packard), and Intel didn't have a chance. Remember the Compaq iPAQ PDA that debuted way back in 2000, powered by an Intel StrongARM chip running an early version of Windows Mobile?

That device had a lot of … Read more