The Apple Tablet gossip includes this courtesy of Barron’s (and C/Net):
A “veteran analyst,” albeit a very anonymous one, has allegedly seen and touched Apple’s rumored “slate-style” PC, which we like to call the jumbo iPod Touch. According to Barron’s source, the new product will be announced in September, released in November, and carry a price tag of between $699 and $799. As previously reported, the tablet (or whatever Apple plans on calling) is ready to go but has been awaiting final approval from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Meanwhile, at the Intel Technology Summit in San Francisco, an executive described a major refresh of Netbook silicon, better-designed “ultrathins,” and turbo-powered high-end laptops.
Netbooks may undergo the biggest change, says C/Net. Models that appear after Windows 7 ships in October will see the most significant overhaul internally since the Netbook category debuted back in the spring of 2008. Intel’s new “Pine Trail” Atom silicon will collapse most of the core chips onto one piece of silicon, improving the power efficiency and boosting performance.
Pine Trail is a two-chip solution versus today’s three-chip solution and includes the 45nm Intel Atom processor, codenamed Pineview-M, with integrated graphics, display and memory controllers on the processor. The platform also includes Tiger Point, an input/output (I/O) hub. The integration in Pine Trail will offer overall platform BOM savings, improved performance, graphics, thermals and lower average power compared to today’s solutions.
Meanwhile, an array of smartbooks built around ARM-based Snapdragon (from Qualcomm) or Tegra processors (from Nvidia), are expected from Acer, Foxconn, Pegatron Technology, Compal and Inventec, starting in fourth-quarter 2009, according to Digitimes.
A CULV “ultrathin” with a 11.6-inch screen will go into production next month by Acer, with production of a 10.1-inch netbook revision beginning in September. Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage chips may run all day on batteries with performance between Intel’s Atom and Dual core CPUs.
Meanwhile, Dell and Intel are collaborating on a touchscreen tablet due for release next year, says Wired. The tablet will apparently serve as a subscription-based e-reader for displaying newspapers, magazines and other media, competing with Amazon’s $500 large-format DX model.
