Brits take iTablet moniker for 12in iPad rival
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 …
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So....
"But the iTablet runs a full-scale, multi-tasking OS: Windows 7."
But the pic is showing Windows XP: virtual machine, photoshop, or what?
Windoze
"But the iTablet runs a full-scale, multi-tasking OS: Windows 7."
You say that like it's an advantage. Besides, the screenshot clearly shows XP.
Nice!
Apple should have just offered to buyout this product and released it instead.
How much cash for all that cache..?
"up to 1.6GHz with 2GB of cache"
Impressive level of caching for such a small device........
HATE the way it says iTablet on the front, totally ruins the look.
Windows 7?
Looks a lot like XP to me...
Yeah I know it's probably only a rendering, but I expect El Reg to point out the marketing-droids' faux pas so we don't have to!
On the other hand, were I in the market for such an impractical form-factor computing device, this sounds like a much better candidate for my (probably fewer) shekels. Plus the naming is deliciously cheeky (hope they don't get sued).
Windows 7
...So why does it show an image of windows XP running in the photo?
Few things..
1) At that clock speed, it implies to me it's an Atom.
2) 2GB of *cache*?? Is that what us mere mortals call "RAM"?
3) That's not Windows 7 - that's Windows XP
Cache
"2GB of *cache*?? Is that what us mere mortals call "RAM"?"
No... no it's not. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache
Bad Photoshop
Your 'shopped image is as bad as Apples with Flash on their iPad.
Firstly, you've got it running XP when the story says the tablet will run Windows 7
Secondly, it looks to be higher resolution that 768x1024 that it would be in portrait mode.
Mine's the one with Photoshop for Dummies in the pocket.
Interest?.. peaked?... me?
That's a big 10-4 Big Buddy!
I want to see a full review a.s.a.p, if you please El Reg :-)
Interest peaked
Mine peaked at the title and has diminished significantly from there.
I hope being such a pedantard doesn't provoke a fit of ... temper from the moderatrix.
Paris because I enjoyed her version of Twin Peaks.
Re: Windows 7?
The Win 7 / XP faux pas is to blatently obvious, we didn't think *anyone* need mention it...
Reg Readers queue up for Sybil Fawlty Award
win 7, huh?
Then they might want to Photoshop the correct desktop onto the mock-up in the picture -sure looks like XP to me.
Soooooo.............
Let the contest begin:-) seconds out.Round one!
Now this sounds interesting!
Looking forward to see where this goes. Though it shows XP on the tablet, not 7. It was also a good coup with the name. Decent specs, no mention of battery life yet...
Here's hoping the price is comparable to the iPad.
Oh look! Another Tablet PC...
...which utterly misses the f*cking point.
Here, let me fix your subheading for you:
"Camera? Check. Multi-tasking? Check. Flash? Check. Shite GUI? Check."
Who needs a bloody camera on a 12" tablet-shaped device like this when the damned thing already has Bluetooth and WiFi? Or are the idiots who buy this kind of thing not expected to own a mobile phone with a built-in camera (and far more suitable form-factor) of its own?
Who gives a gnat's chuff about multi-tasking when the vast majority of users clearly task-SWITCH? If multi-tasking is so goddamned important, how the HELL has Apple managed to shift so many iPhones—and iPod Touches—while the likes of Nokia and Palm struggle to sell anything like the same numbers of similarly specified phones *with* multi-tasking?
(Here's a clue: the general public may be ignorant about fields outside their own interests, but ignorance does NOT equate to stupidity.)
Why the hell is having Adobe's infamous, proprietary, overrated bugware installed a *good* thing? Or have the flames in the comment threads here and elsewhere regarding Adobe's poor QA passed you by? (Considering that there was a wide-open opportunity to flame Apple's new iPad, the vitriolic, anti-Adobe spleen-venting was a surprise even for me. And I'm no fanboy.)
And Windows 7 as the GUI? Seriously? So it's basically just a standard Tablet PC with a standard desktop OS and no keyboard? Way to miss the point, guys. Well done. Bravo. And yes, I'm being sarcastic.
Incidentally: Jonathan Ive—who leads Apple's product design team—is also a Brit. That guy with the English accent at the beginning of the Apple iPad advert? That's him. Design is something the British have generally been rather good at. (It's the manufacturing and QA we tend to fall down on.)
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.
Erm
The iPhone can check your mail in the background, and also play music through the iPod while you are browsing. I see no reason why the iPad won't.
OOOOOooooOO Listen to 'er......
>>Who needs a bloody camera on a 12" tablet-shaped device like this when the damned thing already has Bluetooth and WiFi?
Cameras take picksures, but blootoof and whyfi are fore conekivity (my 5 year-old answered this for you)
>>Who gives a gnat's chuff about multi-tasking when the vast majority of users clearly task-SWITCH? If multi-tasking is so goddamned important, how the HELL has Apple managed to shift so many iPhones....
If a tablet is <just> a big phone then nobody cares, it remains to be seen if tablets are true pda/computer hybrids with features of both or compromises some features of either, the iPad is big iPhone (iTouch?), but the iTablet is a keyboardless PC, neither sits in the middle ground, so I'll explain it for you, if you want to run the thousands of golf score/weight loss/horoscope iPhone apps for $0.79 then get an iPhone/iPad, if you want to run the thousands of windows apps then get and iTablet, you'll have real applications, not toys and gimics (unless you want toys and gimics, there's those too).
>>Why the hell is having Adobe's infamous, proprietary, overrated bugware installed a *good* thing?
There are loads of flash sites out there, so if you're on the net flash *could* be good for you, but it does prevent flash adverts, so maybe it's not so bad, with a decent size screen you want to fully use it on 'tinternet, on a piddly little iPhone screen losing flash is not such a big deal, but it is on a iPad/iTablet.
However I do like how you dismiss multi tasking as people don't "technically" care, but suddenly the technical failures and QA of flash *are* important to you.... ahem
>>I'm being sarcastic.
Tablets have always been "not quite", there's a huge history of them, same as netbooks, netbooks are taking off now but why didn't they take off before? (I still have my Libretto 110), maybe the time is right for a tablet, maybe they are still "not quite", if you're saying that the iPad is the only true tablet and everything else should be judged by it's standard then obviously they are missing the point, but if you measure the iPad by the standard of a traditional tablet (a laptop with a touch screen and no keyboard) then the iPad is missing the point.
It remains to be seen if the iPad features will define what a tablet "is", but if does then the archos with android is more of a competitor to the iPad than the iTablet, but if people want a ebook reader with their familiar windows apps the iPad falls short, either way, your opinion will only make the difference of one sale (or not), interesting times are ahead, I think the likes of Kindle (hardware) and Sony ebook readers will bite the dirt, but that also remains to be seen.
Well the iPhone/Pod/Pad can do that
You've never used one? It's quite possible to listen to music when surfing, and it will fade the music down to "ping" at you when a new mail comes in.
Yep
...and the iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad can do EXACTLY that.
Video calls perhaps?
Who needs a bloody camera on a 12" tablet-shaped device like this when the damned thing already has Bluetooth and WiFi? Or are the idiots who buy this kind of thing not expected to own a mobile phone with a built-in camera (and far more suitable form-factor) of its own?
If you have Skype installed then a built in camera is kind of useful. This is why most decent netbooks have them.
Re: Multi-tasking
That's a good point. In respect to something like that, which people will do, then the iPhone does multi-task. But everyone's ignored that and gone for the view that it doesn't multi-task at all, because you can't run concurrent applications.
"But the iTablet runs .... Windows 7."
Which Means it wont really be that touchable because its running an OS Built for Pointer input, and will just infuriate and annoy people as they attempt to complete the same tasks but with a far inferior input device.
Tablets need Full touch OSs for them to really succeed, any that do not have this are a non starter or most of the target market.
. alas, many people will buy such items when PC world jumps on them and they will be left with an even more infuriating experience than they currently have with a full computer running a complex OS.
"the iTablet runs a full-scale, multi-tasking OS: Windows 7."
So why does the picture show it running WinXP? They could have at least mocked up the right OS version!
However, if it has - are YOU listening, X2? - a capacitive touchscreen and a comparable battery life to my NC10, as I'd imagine it must have pretty much stock netbook internals, I could be very interested!
Nice, and the price?
And if they can sell it for less than the iPad they may have a good alternative to Apple.
You could compare those two to my comparison between the Archos player and the Apple iTouch.
I wanted a good portable media player and had a choice between the above mentioned, the iTouch is sleek but the Archos player had a bit more grunt about it. Anyhow bought the Archos in the end.
So yeah, this iTablet appears to have a bit more grunt going for it but not as sleek as the iPad, so people who choose capability over design may pick the iTablet. They could have a winner here.
Two questions, first why the heck does it have to use that damn "i" in it's title, it's unoriginal now.
Second, I still can't see how a tablet can be a good alternative to a laptop, BTW I can't be bothered with a laptop either.
So please sell it at a good price guys, who knows maybe even I might get intrested!
Look like XP to me
Regardless, whatever the iPad lacks and the iTablet has the main difference is the OS. For the market this is designed for - iTablet fails.
I think Apple knew the potential market for their iPad but couldn't call their miracle baby a grannyPad - patent attorneys from incontinence item makers would have descended upon them with uproar
pwned.
Although it always takes Apple to get the marketing right. I expect now that they have broken the concept of the tablet PC with the general public, other manufacturers will have a much easier time selling them. Much like they did with the mp3 player.
What? But!! Splutter!
"Just like they did with the MP3 player"
Oh, I see what you did there.
This is what the iPad was trying to be !!
USB's !! HDMI !! WebCam !! Multitasking OS !! Standard AR !! Ability to buy and run apps bought directly from 3rd party's !!
This really is what the iPad was trying to be !!
Also runs Linux, and i'm sure it won't be long before someone hacks OSX on to it (making the iPad obsolete).
"This is what the iPad was trying to be"
Really? If Apple wanted the iPad to have USB, a hard drive, a webcam, and a multitasking OS, don't you think they would have made it like that?
Also, most laptops weight close to 2kg, so only a little bit more than this device. If you have one now, hold it closed in your left hand and pretend to use your other hand on the top of the closed laptop like a tablet. Fancy doing that for long?
Nope
It's exactly what the iPad ISN'T trying to be. Jobs went to great pains to point out that the iPad is not a tablet PC or a netbook. How is this touchscreen Windows machine anything other than a broken laptop PC?
If someone DOES Hackintosh* this...
...and it becomes available in the States at a reasonable price, I'll seriously consider getting one.
* Yeah... I just verbed** "Hackintosh"...
** ...and "verb", too... what's your point...?
Umm
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but that image shows Windows XP not Windows 7.
Will it tempt me to get one? No, I have no need of a tablet PC of any factor or OS. Is it better than the iPad? Most certainly. Will it outsell the iPad? Nope. Will Apple fanbois come rushing in spouting inane facts about why the iPad is the best tablet choice for any tablet by far and all that malarky? Most defiantly.
Camera
Can'#t see it on this side,. which means it's on the back - useless for skype... (surely the main use of such of a webcam on such a device)
OS
"But the iTablet runs a full-scale, multi-tasking OS: Windows 7"
Looks rather like Windows XP to me in that picture...
OK is it just me?
Or is that the worst photoshop in living memory??
I want one!
Finally this is a device I can get excited about. Sure it runs Windows but I'm sure that can be remedied.
Is it just me......
Or is the product photo a blatant photoshop job........
Windows 7?
Why is the release pic showing Windows XP running on it? Either it's using some god-awful third party touch screen interface, or they haven't actually got Windows 7 to work on it properly yet.
Otherwise... interesting...
Fisher Price buttons?
looks more like XP to me. Unless they have skinned Win7 to use XP style but that would be truly weird.
Pr0n on the move?
Well, we've got Flash, so we finally have decent Pr0n on the move. Now the question is: is the battery life enough for a real mobile use? If I use a tablet, I expect it to be with me all day long, always powered on (in standby mode at least) so I can use it without waiting for it to boot.
Beer because a tablet is a perfect companion for a beer or two at the pub. At least until the beer gets poured on the tablet.
runs windows 7?
Why does it have XP on it in the picture then?
Replaceable logo
Just make sure that the logo is easily swappable for an Apple one by the purchaser for added comedy value.
@Tony Barnes
"HATE the way it says iTablet on the front, totally ruins the look."
Electrical tape fix. I use it all the time for devices with blinding blue power lights apparently designed to keep aircraft from flying into them at night. Should work equally well for non-emissive display ugliness.
Paris, because she's easy on the eyes, isn't she?
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