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back to article Seriously, for real this time, the 12in MaxiPad is totally on the way ...

Stop us if you've heard this one before: Apple is developing a 12.2-inch iPad that will go on sale within a year. This time, the rumor is spreading from Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, which cites "reliable sources." It's claimed Cook and Co are in the final stages of designing a massive fondleslab to compete with the likes of …

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  1. David 14

    Why an iPAD?

    If they are looking to make a "Professional" device then why would anyone believe this to be an iPAD architecture?

    The Macbook line is used by many in the professional space for the quality, portability and support of little things like REAL business operating systems (read Windows for business... OSX for graphics/video/audio work). I would love to see an apple-quality device to compete with the Surface... consider it a Macbook Air in a tablet form.

    Would definitely be appealing to a large group of users frustrated with the "almost good" solution that an iPAD brings to the professional world.

    My $0.02!

    2 2 Reply
    1. big_D Silver badge
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      Re: Why an iPAD?

      I agree. I am looking at a new device and the list has been narrowed to either a Surface Pro 3 or a Lenovo Yoga Pro...

      0 0 Reply
      1. Dave 126 Silver badge
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        Re: Why an iPAD?

        >If they are looking to make a "Professional" device then why would anyone believe this to be an iPAD architecture?

        Are you conflating the underlying OS with the User Interface? The most professional UI is the one that is most fit for purpose - so an iPad like device with a fancy digitiser (see 'Modbook, or 'Wacom Hybrid') might be the better device for a graphic artist than a Macbook. A musician might find an iPad a better device to use as a control surface, and find it perfectly secure and reliable enough.

        Currently we tend to associate ARM architecture with touch interfaces, and x86 architecture with keyboards and mice - but that is largely to do with the power constraints of mobile devices. It is not written in stone.

        OSX, like NeXT before it, has run on different hardware architectures in the past. 3rd party applications might have to be rewritten for an ARM OSX, but they would have to be modified anyway in order to work well with a touch/stylus interface.

        Microsoft too are dabbling with x86/ARM agnosticism.

        0 0 Reply
  2. Mage Silver badge

    MacBook

    Apple have no loyalty to USERS.

    If eventually they can make more money from an iMaxyPad with a keyboard cover, ARM and iOs than MacAir with x86 and OSX, then x86 will die.

    They have killed two Mac CPUs before.

    2 7 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: MacBook

      They killed off two evolutionary dead ends. The 68040 was the last of its line. IBM showed no commitment to lower power Power PC. Intel has been winning in terms of power consumption and performance for some time, delivering workstation performance that is frugal with the battery.

      4 0 Reply
      1. Mage Silver badge
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        Re: MacBook

        the x86 is a dead end too.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: MacBook

      They killed two Mac CPUs before and replaced them with something better. Do you wish they'd have bought Motorola and forced them to keep updating the 68K line? There might not be any Macs today if they had done so...

      7 0 Reply
      1. big_D Silver badge
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        Re: MacBook

        But the Motorola and the PowerPC are much nicer to write code for. Intel assembler is a nightmare in comparison.

        Still, few people worry about the programmer friendliness of the CPU these days, we seem to have more than enough clock cycles to waste on inefficient coding.

        1 4 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          Re: MacBook

          No one, and I mean it when I say NO ONE is concerned about an ISA's ease of writing assembler. The number of people writing assembler is miniscule, and most of them are wasting their time with such micro-optimization when improving their algorithm in C/C++/C#/ObjC would result in a far greater performance benefit.

          If someone was able to create a new CPU that ran three times as fast as today's CPUs on compiled code, but was the most hostile environment for assembly code you could imagine, the market would beat a path to it, trampling on the broken bodies of assembly programmers.

          1 0 Reply
  3. Vince

    "The report goes on to suggest that the plus-size "iPad Pro" would also use the Touch ID fingerprint reader introduced in the latest iPad models and the Apple Lightning connector interface"

    Really? Wow, I'm glad someone figured that out. I don't even like Apple and it was obvious surely that if a new "maxipad" is coming (and it is let's face it, still speculation) the 2 most obvious things you'd expect would the new-standard connector and the new-standard fingerprint sensor.

    5 0 Reply
  4. bex

    I can't see any reason why it would be thicker. With an extra 60 mm diagonally this gives a large area to add battery size

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Because if it isn't thicker, at 12.2" diagonal, it's going to bend like crazy when you put it in your pocket. ;)

      7 1 Reply
    2. big_D Silver badge
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      Stability and handlability. If it is too thin, it will be uncomfortable in the hand.

      0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surface Pro 3 is 12"

    Way to misrepresent Surface Pro in the article, a Surface Pro 3 is 12" at a 3:2 aspect ratio, not the 10" stated.

    3 0 Reply
  6. Mark 85
    Coat

    Oh.. the Maxipad is an Apple fondleslab....

    I was worried for a few moments that El Reg had changed editorial direction to feminine hygene products.

    1 3 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just what we need: a load of big, swinging dicks swinging their iSchlong's all over the place.

    0 2 Reply
    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
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      Just like we see all those Surface pro's at the moment...

      Oh Wait...

      0 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        When the Surface gets a Sky Lake chip I'll have one. I'd prefer an iSchlong though to go with my BSD.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      And we have our first iWeener in da house!

      0 0 Reply
  8. Persiflage

    Go large, or go... small.

    Rocking the 12.2" Note Pro at the moment, and unexpectedly loving it.

    Considering the multiplicity of devices I have lying around at the moment (gotta do those "feasibility studies" and "examine use cases", don'cha know; I love my job), I was very doubtful that it would find a niche. Much to my surprise, it has actually ousted the 9"ish-10"ish form factor beasties from my daily round entirely.

    A few days in with the extra screen real-estate of a 12-incher and I now find the lesser slabs too pokey to work on when sitting at a desk with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse... and for those situations where I've got to indulge in one-handed slab-fondling, they're still too unwieldy and I want to drop to a 7"ish-8"ish model. I'm starting to feel like the interim sizes are - for me at least - somewhat superfluous.

    It's early days yet though, and I might change my mind in another week or so. :)

    All in all, I'm a tentative convert to the MaxiSlab concept, and although I couldn't see myself forking out my own cash for an iThing ever again now I've hopped over the wall of that particular garden, I think it would be a good move on Apple's part if they ship one soon.

    0 0 Reply

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