i want a tablet :(

I'm fairly interested in getting a laptop with no internal optical, since I can find high quality externals and not worry about that part breaking inside my computer. I have an external display that would go oh so nicely with one of these, and the longer battery life this thing would have would make my macbook the hand-me-down kit in an instant. Gimme....dammit gimme!

Windows Tablet Edition has been out for a while. Does Apple have an OSX Tablet version? I'd really like to see a usability comparison between the two.

$1500 for an SSD laptop and LED backlight screen?

"Hey Farva what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?"

I say Shenanigans

i want 10 inch!

@kaylix:
touch troll or troll touch mods macs to have touchscreens, im not sure if they mess with the OS though.

@Le0nidas:
i you bought a $400 Eee you'd have $1100 left over to do the LED mod...voila!

the big news will be interface, it will work like the iphone and the touch. Imagine a big portable iphone, that has full os X on it.

sweet. i wanted something like x505 but with os x.
a tablet is fine too.

@nutbastard:
"i want 10 inch!"
I'm sure someone here will oblige you.

@ANoel: 10 inch...see the other posts in the rubbot section :P

seriously though, this is cnbc, perhaps to them "sub notebook" means tablet.

@ANoel: I'm sure someone here will oblige you.

Dude, this is a TECHNOLOGY web site. The only big things around here are hard DISKS.

Let me guess, it will come in 8gig and 16gig flavors...

Compared to how the MacBooks are priced out (and they fact that even if I'm a Mac fanboy, I'd never pay $125 for a paint job), these should sell well. I think I'll sell my MacBook Pro and move on to this new laptop since video cards get outdated too quickly anyway.

I'm just hoping battery life doesn't suffer due to the slimmer profile (and thus less space for the battery)

OK, lets go:

64GB SSD,
13.3" LED backlit LCD,
no optical drive,
very thin casing,
AND a $1500,- pricetag ?!?

If that is true, I'm sold!
I'd get a portable 320GB drive in a bus-powered FW800 MacPower casing and that would be it.

kimkapsol, where ARE you?
(That goes out to those old Appleinsider forum members!!!)

oh goody. rumors. from an investment site. i'm sure these are perfectly valid.

I just vomited on myself out of excitement.

Ultra Portable?
I would think an ultra portable means at least to fit in your pocket or else its not really ultra portable... A 13 inch screen would not be that small!

woops....12 inch*

Let me guess...do we have to sign up with AT&T first?

@ NUTBASTARD: thank god someone spelled "voila" correctly. Too many users think it's "walla".

oui, je parle français, je sais qu'il est peu probable, mais c'est vrai.

If it did have cellular broadband and a docking solution it would be an interesting option. I love my little 12" dell but thinner and lighter is alaways better.

Although for that price the onboard storage would have to be TINY. Im all for external drives but when half of your disk space is in OS then it kills the cache of the tiny computer when you have to carry around a Mybook.

It would have to be pretty damn light to be more portable than the current Macbooks. Like the Sony one with teh carbon fiber screen case. That small. I am also guessing that it would have one of those half assed centrino mobile low power chips that run at like 1.066 ghz. So smaller yeah, performance, no.
AND STOP SAYING LAPPIE!
we are talking about computers, not cairn terriers here.

Steve Jobs is probably fuming if this is even close to truth. I wouldn't put it past him to delay the product just to prove everyone wrong. LOL

You'll brick it, though, if you try to load any third party apps onto it.

Nutbastard:

Shame on you :-)

The Eee already has an LED backlight, so you save the $1100 AND you don't have to do any mods LOL.

Voilà!

Why It's a Tablet, Not a Laptop

First, at the claimed thickness, the machine would be top heavy in laptop form, meaning that when open and in use, it would have the tendency to tip over backwards.

Second, all the major device updates have focused on the use of the touch interface. See iPhone, iPod touch.

Third, a new laptop doesn't really fit in the product line, whereas a tablet just might. In fact, it might fit into a very sweet spot for home users who want an internet device, or to stream media from elsewhere in the house.

Fourth, Inkwell needs a reason to exist.

And the best piece of evidence?
[www.macplus.net]

I rest my case.

I'm thinking this will probably use the same multi-touch display as Dell's Latitude XT.

Please don't let Gizmodo go to shit over this, pleeeeze?

@strider_mt2k: From your mouth to Brian/Jesus/Jason's ears...

@whootowl:

That joke was funny the first time it was applied to a non-iPhone Apple product...

Well, no, actually, it wasn't funny the first time, either.

Will it be competitively priced with the eeePC? My Baby Boomer technologically-impaired mother got one (on my recommendation) and now won't shut up about it. Especially how it does everything she needs, without anything she doesn't need, does it for cheap and in a small form factor.

Want to really sell product? Don't rip off people who are curious about trying out your products.

Am I the only one thinking this is total bullshit!! Seriously, a touch (probably multi-touch) screen laptop with all flash memory for $1500!! Oh and it's only a .5in thick!! get the fuck out!! Has anyone seen the prices of 32gb drives flash memory? 12 or 13in touchscreens!! From what I hear the thing that's holding back laptops from getting thinner is the dvd drives, unless apple wanted to abandon the optical drive which wouldn't surprise me.

What I think this is is the same thing that happens before every apple conference. Some douchebag comes up with crazy rumors promising the world to everyone and when apple doesn't deliver on these extremely high expectations their stock plummets and this is where these guys make their money!! And yes you can make money when stocks go down!! This happened back may before the WWDC in June!!

@Mixotic: "Fourth, Inkwell needs a reason to exist.
And the best piece of evidence?
[www.macplus.net]"

Inkwell's been doing ok with no reason to exist for over five years now.

And isn't US Design patent D504,899 for an LCD screen protector?

II almost forgot, december is that time of the year
where the apple fanboys and gizmodo go nuts with at least 2 rumors a day, one of which denied the one on the previous day for 35 days until they all connect to apple.com to listen to the leader making it's keymote live in front of a fanatic crowd applauding after every sentence.

Then the leader introduce the new product that they all talk about so much and, surprise! , it's even better than they all though it would be!

Must suck to be PC guy that day!

ay!

ay!

fuckk my whitebook cost 1800...if this is true i should sell and invest >< LOL!

I have a toshiba portege 3010, that one is about that thick (0.7 inch) and ultrathin....and NINE YEARS OLD - running with a wireless adapter today - 266 mhz, USB - fastIrDa and a beatiful screen, ultrasmall and 1.3 kg light.

Hardly revolutionary tech. coming from Apple unless they smack a 3D-graphics card into that size, I'll be fine. Surfing fast on the net can be done on 100 mhz if you don't run VISTA ;)

I've been hearing this rumor all over the place. Half inch thick subcompact mac. The rumor is so pervasive that if Apple doesn't announce it, their stock will probably go down.

At half an inch thick it'll have to be a tablet. It'll probably be something between an iPhone and a Macbook, with a Macbook-sized screen and a bunch of aluminum and intuitive gesture-based controls. I really doubt they're going to drop something that's in the same class as a Eee.

I've been holding out buying my first ever mac (even though I do use them all the time at work). I have waited until Macworld so I am really hoping they realease something that comes up good :)

Portability is probably the most important thing that I would like...

how do you do a fresh OS install without an optical drive? flash drive?