I like everything about this video. That's how I imagine the interaction with the Apple Tablet would be: Smooth and light. I hope the styling of the final tablet ends being more than an overgrown iPhone, however. Something with no framing, with the screen fully flushed to the edges, would work mighty fine, thank you very much. [No Where Else]

He says that Apple is offering 30/70 revenue split to book publishers. That's 30% for Apple, and 70% for publishers for a non-exclusive distribution contract. Amazon—who apparently has pissed off everyone in the book industry—only offers 30/70 for exclusives, and 50/50 for the rest. He claims that the Apple device will make "ebooks more relevant for education by simplifying functions such as scribbling marginalia."

As for the specs, he claims the same screen technology of the iPhone but in a 10.1-inch size, ironbarring the concept of a super-expensive OLED display—which I always thought was absolutely stupid.

Fine, Mr. Reiner, your predictions seem reasonable. But I reserve the right to ironbar you myself if they don't become true. [AppleInsider]

We can now announce that the first units are going into specialized tablet devices with multi-touch. Increasingly these screens will be super-slim, but some customers prefer the standard thickness.

Pixel Qi will be at CES in Las Vegas in early January supporting our customers. We can't yet announce with whom we will be showing but hope to shortly.

Oh noes. Your client will be at CES? And they may not be interested in super-slim screens? Then that's not you-know-who, the company whose obsession with thinness is inversely proportional to their interest in CES. Too bad, but I still have hope. [Pixel Qi via Netbook News via Slashgear]

People from the 80s. All the five who survived wearing their hair spray and shoulder pads and striped shirts and silk undapants. You know, the kind that get inside your buttcrack and itch, which is precisely the sensation I get from Schonfeld's description of Time Inc's project:

The demo was shown on an HP table computer with a touchscreen [...] The cover takes up the full screen and you tap it to show a table of contents with thumbnails of the actual layout, which you can rearrange to read in any order you like. To flip through the pages you swipe with two fingers, and you can also tap to get a navigational timeline at the bottom. There is also a navigation wheel which lets you share stories via email, Facebook, or Twitter, favorite a story, go to related videos or photos interviews, other articles, or stats such as live scores.

Holy fuck! Live scores! Score for you, Time Inc! And share stories via email and Facebook and Twitter. Please keep on talking, because you are getting me wet. But please, satisfy my curiosity before I get on my knees and bow down before your genius: How is this different from a web page? Other than costing ten times as much to produce, that is.

Never mind, I will tell you how: It's a lot worse. It's just pasting an old medium into a new one, painting the resulting clusterfuck with two layers of thick varnish. This effort to cling to the past may look pretty, but no matter how much eye candy Time Inc. throws at this, it would still feel stale and dead.

I'm sorry, Time Inc. and Condé Nast and Murdochs of the world, but magazines are not dying because they are printed on paper. They are going under because many other factors. Here are some of them: Reduced attention spans, reader's demand for instant satisfaction, and a general change in visual culture and codes that have rendered the page concept obsolete in favor of more anarchic, time-organized information structures, as well as non-linear ones.

So get over this phase, this desperation of yours to keep the old into the new. That's not how innovation happens. Don't try to translate pages into a tablet format by just adding multitouch, animation, and Twitter links. Instead, think about how the new medium can deliver content in a truly different way, rather than just putting pages together into glorified PDFs. If you can live up to the promise some people believe in, you may succeed. But until you really nail it down, you'll keep reducing staffs and closing publications, no matter how many Apple Tablets are sold. [TechCrunch]

Taking on Axiotron, whose MacBook mod impressed us so much in our review last year, Apple has acquired its TabletMac name in the last 12 months, with documents showing the registration request dated November 6th, 2008. The actual transfer date between Axiotron and Apple for the name isn't clear, but with all of the Apple tablet rumors heating up in recent months, it's a tidy little coincidence. [MacRumors]

Turn down your volume before hitting play, loud techno music awaits. Down? OK, good. Now let's look at what we've got here. It's about what you would expect from a tablet magazine reader. The big screen lets you soak in the magazine layout without zooming, and the graphics are big and interactive. In a nutshell, it looks like a hi-res iPhone app.

According to the source, Condé Nast doesn't want to take any chances, and the app is a precautionary measure to make sure they're ready if/when the device comes out. So don't take this to mean that launch is imminent. Take it as a sign that even if the tablet doesn't exist, it should, because a lot of huge publishing companies are more than willing to throw their weight behind it. [Wired]

DigiTimes says that the 9.7-inch OLED panels are priced at about $500 bucks today, and the screen would account for about 30 percent of the device's $1500 to $1700 cost when it arrives in the second quarter of next year. OLED prices are expected to fall over the next couple of years, though. As for the 10.6-incher, that's still said to be in the $800 to $1000 ballpark.

No word yet from them on the rumored matter synthesizer and teleporter module, but give it a couple more months, and they will spill it all out. [DigiTimes]

Analysts Talk Apple Tablet, Make Ever More Predictions

CNN Money rounded up a bunch of analysts to basically talk about how great the Apple Tablet is, how it's going to cure cancer and save the publishing industry and keep your girlfriend from leaving you, and it's mostly a rehash of what we've already heard before with a dash of a few inane statements that are almost certainly not true. Check this one:

The device will come in several different models that offer varieties of Internet connections, such as Wi-Fi or 3G, perhaps through a contract with AT&T.

Oh, really? Several different models, with varying internet connections? That sure sounds like Apple—they love confusing lineups that differ by virtue of technical specifications that only tech dorks like you and I understand.

Otherwise, nothing to see here, just more analyst talk. When something solid on the Apple Tablet leaks out, you'll know—and it ain't to be found in this article, which is why it lands, with a distinct PLOOP sound, into Remainders. [CNN]

Mad Catz Brings Cheaper Xbox 360 Wi-Fi Adapter, Still About $50 Too Expensive

I just got an Xbox 360 this weekend, and somehow did not realize that not only does the console not ship with included Wi-Fi, but an external Wi-Fi adapter costs about as much as my drinking budget for the month—in other words, way too much money. Luckily Microsoft's first-party adapter isn't the only game in town anymore: Mad Catz is entering the ring with an adapter of their own. Great news, right? Except not really, because while the Mad Catz adapter is $20 cheaper than Microsoft's that's still an $80 pricetag on an item that should be included in the first place. This thing should cost $30 at the most, not half the price of the console. It's in Remainders for that very reason: Yeah, it's a price cut, but it's still way too damned expensive. [Engadget]

Sony Reader Firmware Upgrade Is Surprisingly Difficult

The Sony Reader PRS-500 may not have the cachet of the Kindles and Nooks of the world, but Sony did just release an upgraded firmware supporting the soon-to-be-standard ePub format. Except I guess the upgrade is seriously difficult, because instead of, you know, pressing a button, like every other firmware upgrade for every other gadget in the history of the world, you have to mail the Reader back to Sony to get this one updated. What? Well, Sony's got an offer in case you find that as silly as I do: A trade-in program that gives you either $50 or $75 off the purchase of one of Sony's brand-new readers! Eesh, Sony. At least take us out to dinner before trying to screw us with our pants on. [Engadget]

B&N Giftcards Will Work for Nook Ebook Purchases, Soon

Remember when we reported that Barnes & Noble's popular giftcards would, for some unknown reason, not be allowed to be spent on ebook purchases? Well, our reporting did its job, and B&N has decided to change its ways and allow ebook giftcard purchases starting in mid-December. We did it, people! High fives and ass-slaps all around! [Barnes & Noble]

A system comprising: a pen-based input tablet configured to collect and organize received ink information into ink strokes.

"Upon the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, the ink manager notifies the handwriting recognition engine and organizes the preceding ink strokes into an ink phrase data structure...The present invention, in large part, relates to the observation that client applications and handwriting recognition software in pen-based computer systems can make far more accurate ink-related decisions based on entire ink phrases, rather than individual ink strokes."

I'm thinking a possible Apple tablet would still be a finger-based multi-touch device, but this seems to suggest Apple is also thinking about the note taking side of things, as well. Either way, tablets are mentioned all over the application…one step closer to Jesus' wet dream? [USPTO via Unwired View]

[In my home we are] all Apple. Apple uses the best technology for their [computers]. Apple says to their customers: if you buy a computer from us you can be sure we have selected the best technology inside for you. That is their promise to consumers. Their promise to consumers isn't we've selected the best technology for you with the exception of what Intel allows us to use. That's not their promise. And that's why Apple uses the best technology where they want whenever they want. And that's why I'm all Apple! At home it's just Macs everywhere. It's Nvidia's technology in all of them but I use Macs. My son has two Macs, my daughter has a Mac, there's an extra Mac just in case and my wife has a Mac. It's just Mac, Mac, Mac! Because I know it's got the best stuff inside.

That's quite an enthusiastic endorsement. So enthusiastic that he crosses the ultra-fanboy territory and gets into the "I've my hockey knee pads here and I'm ready to perform iphonelingus on you if you pick me as your tablet provider, Apple" danger zone. [Shufflegazine—Thanks Ron]

The Pen Mac was an inch thick, used the same screen as the Mac Portable, and didn't merely exist in a lab—this is a real working model pictured here, not just a pretty (for the time) case. Unfortunately, the powers that were wanted a handheld rather than a full-sized tablet, and so the Pen Mac was discarded in favor of the Newton, which in turn didn't have such a hot life itself.

The project was dug up for a sequel, called the PenLite, but it too was cancelled, and the mythical Apple tablet has gained stature ever since. Something interesting to think about: The Pen Mac was cancelled because it was replaced by a handheld, lower-power computer—sound familiar? Maybe the iPod Touch and iPhone are, in that very specific way, the Newton of today, and we'll never see a full-sized Apple tablet. I know you guys hate to think about such a thing, but we all know that the past repeats itself. I learned it from Battlestar Galactica, so it has to be true. [TechCrunch]

Over the last few weeks I've been talking to people within the comics industry to try to sniff out Apple's plans, including Neal Adams, developer of an upcoming motion Astonishing X-Men comic on iTunes, who also told me the French saying. Everyone in Adams' line of work is buzzing about the tablet and what it can do for their masterpieces.

It's an easy presumption for comic book fans. The Sun Times' Andy Inhatko is betting that LongBox, a digital distribution platform for comic books, will make an appearance on Apple's upcoming tablet. More than just an appearance, really:

I'm pretty sure that Apple is entering into a formal alliance with LongBox. When I asked [LongBox CEO Rantz] Hoseley about what kind of partnerships the company is forming, he spoke vaguely of what was taking up most of his time at the moment: a lengthy and complicated agreement with a seriously large company operating in the media space.

One problem: Several sources I spoke to over the last couple of weeks, including top-level executives at giants like Marvel and DC, have said they've not heard a whisper from Apple—despite a nearly desperate hope that Apple would come a-courtin'. One executive said to me, when I mentioned the possibility of putting his comic books on the Apple tablet, "If you've heard anything from Apple, please tell them I'm ready to do it."

That means that LongBox may be the only distribution option for comic books at the tablet's launch, through some sort of dedicated LongBox app. And if LongBox's distribution plan for the Apple tablet is just an app, why would they need to do any negotiations with Apple? Launch the LongBox app, sell the content, and go. No Apple nod necessary.

We know that Apple has been reaching out to select publishers. It was Andy Inhatko who passed on the rumor about "trucks loaded with books" earlier this year. It all fits with the moves we already know Apple is making in its outreach to magazine and newspaper publishers. For Apple, the tablet is about cleaning up; with the addition of books, newspaper, magazines and comic books, there isn't a single vector of mass media that Apple won't be able to distribute through iTunes. With the success of the App Store—a success I think even Apple wasn't expecting to such a degree — they're even a major distributor of software and games.

Oh right, there's also music and video.

Marvel content, especially, seems like a given. Disney bought Pixar, putting Steve Jobs on the Disney board. Then Disney buys Marvel. Marvel has already dabbled in publishing content through iTunes, with a new "motion comic" version of The Astonishing X-Men hitting iTunes on October 28th.

I spoke to Inhatko on my tiny Apple tablet last week about his story. He's increasingly persuaded that Apple is content to let print publishers distribute their content through apps, not through the iTunes store itself.

He may very well be right, at least at the tablet's launch, especially given Apple's reticence to even acknowledge the tablet's existence, let alone provide publishers with detailed, unified specifications for an "iRead" format. But it also strikes me as an inelegant solution at best, especially considering iTunes 9's iTunes LP format is an HTML- and JavaScript-based 720p format that would work just wonderfully for a digital magazine and comics format.

Could just be wishful thinking on my part—I'd rather manage subscriptions through iTunes like podcasts, rather than individual apps—but either way it's a win for Apple, who will happily get their cut no matter what system of digital print distribution ultimately takes off. If you have any leads on comic book tablet activity, by all means, send us a tip.

There is one shocker I discovered in my discussions with Marvel folk: It's been confirmed to me that Hulk is stronger than Thor. Chew on that one for a while — at least until you can buy Hulk vs. Thor on iTunes. Excelsior!

Joel Johnson has a blog, but your best bet may be to follow him on Twitter @joeljohnson.

The device was described as a larger iPhone, "small enough to carry in a handbag but too big to fit in a pocket."

This makes the tablet smaller than a breadbox, right? [Apple Insider]

It could easily just be that Bill Keller reads rumors, too. But what if that was a whoopsie letting loose a secret that Bill knows with first hand knowledge? So what? We already know it's coming, having talked to people who have seen and heard things first hand. And we do know the NYTimes is involved with the project. So that's just more of what we already know, but in a way that's not really more proof.

Silly. [gawker]

The SIM card tray you see pictured up top is supposedly designed for the Apple Tablet, and is built by Foxconn (the device's rumored manufacturer). It's definitely larger than the current iPhone SIM tray, but it could probably also be used anywhere. Either way, it goes on sale October 23 for $14.05.

[Edited to remove reference to the Bill Keller NYtimes Quote because a) we already know the tablet is coming, b) he was speaking hypothetically. And if not, well, we already know it's coming.—Blam] [Gawker and China On Trade via Engadget]

Also of note, is that Foxconn has its own Innolux Display subsidiary which might be used instead of Wintek.

But seriously, these are all rumors, so take the latest with the copious measure of skepticism they deserve. Especially when DigiTimes' batting average on Apple info is pretty craptastic—even when it comes to Taiwanese-based manufacturers in its own backyard. [DigiTimes]

To quickly summarize, it's lack of proper manufacturer commitment, the lack of hardware and software, the lack of proper input systems, the high price and the inability to find a proper operating system to run on them. Looking at the rumors of the Apple Tablet, plus what everyone's already familiar with with the iPhone/iPod Touch OS, many of these ditches might be able to be filled quite soon. [NYTimes]

Former Apple engineer, Joshua A. Strickon (whose name is on several Apple multi-touch patents) told the paper it couldn't be built because the battery and graphics sucked, and the parts themselves cost $500 bucks.

But technology has come along way, Apple's iTunes could be the next big bookstore, the Newton's developer has been rehired, and Apple Tablet rumors have reached a fever pitch.

As another former Apple executive, who couldn't be named due to Apple's secrecy policies, told the Times:

"I can imagine something like the iPhone with a much bigger screen being a gorgeous device with great capacity, but I don't know where I would fit that into my life. Those are the debates that have been happening inside Apple for quite some time."

The paper's write-up is a good recap of all the buzz circulating right now; definitely worth a read (and not just because they quote our own Mr. Lam). [New York Times]

Apple Insider says this multitouch interface is designed to recognize specific user hands touching the device (personalized profiles!), and could differentiate between actions such as typing, or hands just resting on the surface. There's also talk of scrollwheel elements for basic OS X control and tactile feedback that wouldn't disrupt movement across the device surface.

Obviously, this seems like a fit for a tablet-based keyboard interface. But maybe it could work as a standalone as well. Many of the functions described revolve mostly around keyboard/tablet like functions, and subsitution gestures for direct object manipulation. And in the patent flowchart, the display seems to be listed as an entirely different component. Then again, it could just be a Red Herring. [Apple Insider via Electronista]