RSSiTablet For Sale: Real or Hoax?
By Ed Oswald | Published January 11, 2006, 3:48 PM
Some enterprising techies from New Jersey have apparently decided that if Apple won't build their own Macintosh tablet, they will. Using parts from the latest iBook laptops from the Cupertino company, the group plans to build 100 "iTablets" and sell them through eBay.
The first of these devices went on sale Wednesday, with a starting bid price of $1,500 USD. As of Wednesday afternoon Eastern Time, the device had not received any bids.
The group says that the picture shown in the description of the device, made to look like an Apple Web page, is only an approximation, as the first iTablet has not been built yet. According to the description, it would take approximately one week to build the device, plus the time to order the iBook on which the tablet version would be built.
To build the iTablet, a 12-inch iBook is dismantled by taking the screen off and applying a touchscreen, then flipping the screen around and fastening it onto the case. To give it an original Apple look, the screen backing is placed over top of the tablet to give it rounded edges.
Of course, there is no warranty, and the group says it would not fix any broken units. Handwriting recognition is also unavailable for the iTablet, although the company said Keystrokes or TouchStrokes software could be used to enter data. The group was including neither with the product.
The claims have been met with skepticism from some. "This entire enterprise smells of fiction not fact," Fabienne Serriere wrote for The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wednesday. "You'd have better luck trying to recreate Joseph DeRuvo Jr.'s home-brew version," referring to a posting on a popular Macintosh "modding" site.
I'm sure apple will buy it and throw it in a drawer somewhere to never be seen again.
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Apparently eBay was as doubtful as all of us...they've removed the listing.
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I think that laptops should be Tablets standard... having the reverse side of the LCD panel respond much like a keyboard does not sound like a huge technological feat and adds great worth for people who would like to use their laptop for jotting down notes at a meeting or casually surfing the Internet in a location such as a hotspot or airport lobby.
Gateway, DELL, HP, and Toshiba all have tablet models of laptops that seem very attractive and desirable. I'd love my DELL Latitude laptop to have tablet abilities (and believe that I can actually swap my panel out with a touch panel).
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If I remember correctly In Stargate Atlantis they use it. That adds more TV Coverage.
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Tablets were never really popular.
Mac Laptops, not really popular.
As my mother use to say to me..."Why would you do that?"
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"Tablets were never really popular." Actually, I just bought one for school, and I am absolutely loving it.
That being said, part of that is because companies have, until recently, not been advertising or marketing them very well. That is changing now with Microsoft, Gateway, and Toshiba advertising theirs with TV ads.
Granted, there's no way in hell I'd buy these things... Even if I loved Apple and wanted a Mac, I would never trust a vendor like this... no warranty, no guarantee, no support, no purchase!
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Well it looks like some sucker actually bid on it. Probably wont see much of a fight to win that bid.
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