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Recent News and Rumors

- Photos of Apple Tablet Back Shell Leaked?
- Apple’s Focus on Content and Possible eBook Pricing
- Last Minute Leaked Photos of the Apple Tablet?
- McGraw-Hill CEO Confirms Apple Tablet, iPhone OS Based, Going to Be “Terrific”
- Apple Tablet Rumor Roundup

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1. Apple Event Not Music Focused
2. Amazon Hedges Ahead of Pending Apple Event
3. Apple Gets Official with January 27th Event

“Hmmmm looks like we may get an iSlate into Jacks hands for Ep 20 getting giddy with excitement”

“Got a bit too excited probably more likely Episode 22 but Apple provided fingers crossed”

Fans of the show know that CTU members often sport Apple MacBook Pros, Cinema Displays and iPhones courtesy of a product placement deal with Apple. And this is as close to tacit confirmation on existence and name of Apple’s tablet as we’ve heard so far. Then again perhaps this is just an evil plot by the Russians and Chloe will have to find the IP of those responsible. But one way or the other, it looks like Apple’s ‘newest creation’ may find its way into Jack’s hands before this season is out….

Related posts:

1. Jobs: Tablet “Most Important Thing I’ve Ever Done”
2. Apple Readying Touchscreen iMacs
3. More details emerge about iPad tablet

For even more mobile fun, try the Prediction App [App Store $2.99] for iPhone.

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• Apple Tablet rumor & prediction roundup (en.onsoftware.com)
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1. Tablet Offers Barnes and Noble Bookstore
2. No Camera Not a Deal Breaker
3. Jobs: Tablet “Most Important Thing I’ve Ever Done”

We believe there is a good chance there will be a Barnes & Noble bookstore built into the Apple Tablet, either as one of the showcase apps which launches with the device, powering a new book section in iTunes, or integrated directly into the Tablet’s e-reader. The two companies are thought to be working closely together, increasing the likelihood that Barnes & Noble will be part of the announcement on Wednesday. While Apple can run around cutting deals with the larger publishers, a built-in Barnes & Noble bookstore could include up to a million titles in one fell swoop, just like on B&N’s own Nook reader. Barnes & Noble already offers an eReader app for the iPhone (iTunes link) which lets you download and read electronic books on the smaller device. That app could be paving the way for an eReader or book store on the Tablet.

What do you think? Will B&N be the mechanism through which you browse and purchase books on the tablet or merely the free couch and WiFi spot where you sit down and do the same directly via the iTunes Store?

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• Apple Tablet Could Write a New Chapter for E-Books (abcnews.go.com)
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This week, Apple is expected to release a tablet computer, probably called the iSlate. Details are scarce, but from what I understand, it will be like a laptop only far less ergonomically optimized for masturbating to porn. Just as Moore’s Law predicted. But who am I to question Steve Jobs, a man who could easily have me bought and sold for twice the price, with a sleeker veneer and revolutionary user-interface. So, in celebration of the new computer I guess we’re all going to buy, here are the best Apple-related bits from The Colbert Report.

Here’s the first one after the jump:

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5- Too expensive. How expensive is too expensive exactly? Personally I might pay up to $999 for a device that replaces my laptop and functions as a phone as well. But recent surveys have suggested that a majority of consumers won’t pay more than $799 at the high end and would prefer a price under $500.

4- Wireless account required. There have been a lot of recent rumblings that Apple will take the January 27th event as an opportunity to break AT&T’s exclusivity with the iPhone and extend this as well to the tablet with Verizon waiting in the wings. But will we be able to buy the tablet without a 2-year cellular contract, regardless of the carrier, or will that not be an option?

3- Apple TV. Every once in a while Apple fails to connect the desires of consumers with shipping products. Perhaps no one wants yet another gadget to play around with and is happy with smartphones and laptops. Apple has tried repeatedly to relaunch the Apple TV with only limited success, especially compared to the iPhone, iPod and pretty much every other product its launched recently- with the possible exception of the iPod HiFi.

2- Interface complexity. This seems like a long shot but there’s word on the street that the tablet will have a higher learning curve than an iPhone and will feature new forms of interaction that will need to be learned. Will this push consumers out of their comfort zone and relegate the product to the real geek zone, limiting it’s critical mass?

1- History. Truth is Apple is not the first to introduce a tablet computer and this is not even Apple’s first attempt at making a tablet- see Newton. Only Palm had a brief success in the ‘90s with its Pilot handheld PDA/tablet computer. Microsoft’s Bill Gates predicted years ago that tablets would take over but they’ve never caught on.

So what do you think? Will the tablet fail or does it have enough momentum to make it huge?

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The trend lines are no friend of the Mac desktop. For 2009, seven out of ten Macs sold were laptops, and in 2010 that ratio will likely rise to three out of four. While this may explain the single table of iMacs in the back of my local Apple Store, the question now becomes: is the Mac desktop doomed?

Steve Jobs once described Apple’s business model as an uncomfortable piece of furniture, a three-legged stool. What he was getting at is where the money comes from: Macs, iPods and the iTunes Store, and the iPhone.

Now couple this data with historical trends clearly showing that the success of portable computers comes as a direct expense of desktop machines.

This all makes perfect sense. Desktop machines are much more expensive than laptops and iPhones. They offer much greater expansion possibilities but are really only needed by specialty markets- such as professional video and audio applications. Also being obviously less portable they are less useful to business people and folks on the go. This is where the Apple tablet may come in to fill the gap. If the tablet appears as many have speculated with a dock including keyboard and mouse that converts it into a Mini iMac this may do away with the main usability advantages a desktop computer offers.

So if you’re in one of those industries where a desktop machine is required for your work, it might be time to start considering your options. No one expects Apple’s powerful professional applications like Logic, Final Cut Studio and Mac Pros to disappear any time soon. But there’s writing on the wall that it could happen someday and the tablet can do nothing but increase that possibility if it’s a success. Apple is a company that can be all things to all people, but where success is based on profit, they gotta go where the money is.

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Flurry, a mobile app analytics company, has noticed approximately 50 devices in the Cupertino that match the characteristics of Apple’s tablet device. Flurry claims to have reliably placed these devices on Apple’s Cupertino campus, and are confident that they are “observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing.”

This make sense – as the Apple Tablet has to be tested before it is announced this Wednesday, January 27 in San Francisco. Furthermore, Flurry has been an extremely reliable source on analytics data thus far and don’t often break stories unless they are sure they’ve checked their facts.

They’ve noticed that a large number of the apps downloaded were Games (140 total downloads or launches) and the next group was Entertainment, followed by News and Books. Here’s a chart of the usage data:

A little bit of background, similar access log/ analytics reports have been used to detect other unannouced Apple products before. For example similar usage reports have detected an as yet unreleased version of the iPhone 3GS as reported by Pinch Media going back as far as 2008:

Recently, one of the users of Pinch Analytics noticed the string “iPhone 2,1″ appearing in their version reporting, and realized that if Apple stuck to its naming conventions, this might be the next version of the iPhone. At Pinch Media, we’ve seen this for some time now, and haven’t thought too much of it — even without this data, we’d just automatically assume Apple’s always working on new versions of their core products. But now that MacRumors and VentureBeat have picked up the story, here’s a little more information:

• the first time an application using Pinch Analytics was run by a ‘iPhone 2,1′ device occurred back in early October 2008;
• applications using Pinch Analytics were run by ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices very sporadically until mid-December 2008, when the pace picked up slightly;
• to date, a few dozen distinct ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices have run almost two dozen different applications using Pinch Analytics;
• when ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices run applications using Pinch Analytics’ optional geolocation tracking, they’re almost exclusively located in the south San Francisco Bay Area;
• while most of the sessions have been made from wifi connections, there’s been a few connections over AT&T’s network, so presumably this device handles both;
• the applications that have been run by Pinch Analytics don’t share much in common, except for their size — they’re among the larger applications to use our stuff, with hundreds of thousands to millions of unique users.

What’s interesting isn’t that the tablet has finally showed up in access logs which are near-instant in their data feedback- that was inevitable, but that Apple has managed to keep all of this development within their intranet for all these years.

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• Apple tests 200 entertainment apps on 50 tablet devices, Flurry says (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat) (techmeme.com)

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“This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done” – Steve Jobs, referring to the soon-to-be-launched Apple Tablet.

We haven’t heard this first hand, but we’ve heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he’s about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he’s ever been. Coming from the man who has created so much, that’s saying something.

If Steve Jobs thinks the iPhone was just a warm up act to this device, I can’t wait to see what it can do. As if our expectations weren’t already set high enough. We’ll all know a lot more this Wednesday.

“This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done” – Steve Jobs, referring to the soon-to-be-launched Apple Tablet.We haven’t heard this first hand, but we’ve heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he’s about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he’s ever been. Coming from the man who has created so much, that’s saying something.

If Steve Jobs thinks the iPhone was just a warm up act to this device, I can’t wait to see what it can do. As if our expectations weren’t already set high enough. We’ll all know a lot more this Wednesday.

SPECIAL BONUS- That alleged spy photo of the iPad for those who missed it last night:

MORE BONUS-

Techcrunch updated today with some comments coming off of Apple’s quarterly earnings conference call:

In Apple’s press release for its strong Q1 2010 earnings, Jobs said the following: “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.” What’s odd is that not only does Jobs (or anyone at Apple, for that matter) usually make no comments about as-yet unannounced products, but why would he do so in a release about the previous quarter’s earnings — which have absolutely nothing to do with the tablet?

Perhaps even stranger is what was said during Apple’s earnings call today. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer fielded a question about unannounced products affecting Apple revenues next quarter, and quickly jumped to his own conclusion. “I think you’re alluding to our event on Wednesday.” While he said Apple had nothing to share on it today beyond “stay tuned,” the fact that he’s the one who brought up the Wednesday event as it relates to a new products also seems to signal his own excitement about it. Again, usually Apple completely stonewalls any questions related to these types of things.

And then there was Apple’s number 2, COO Tim Cook. During the call, he fielded a question more directly about a new product unveiling saying, “I wouldn’t want to take away your joy of surprise on Wednesday when you see our latest creation.”

It’s not that Apple is saying anything hugely revealing about the new product due on Wednesday —it’s that they’re saying anything at all. At times, Apple is a company that tries to dampen its own often-frenzied hype by way of strategic press leaks. But this time, they’re actually feeding it. I just can’t imagine they would do that unless the product really is that good…

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2. Jack Bauer Getting an iSlate
3. It’s the Value Added Content – Stupid

The Jesus Tablet was first was first to report that Apple had filed for an extension to oppose the Fujitsu trademark for “iPad”.  We now have discovered that Apple may be moving ahead anyway.

IP Application Development LLC, a company that has filed patents internationally for the “iPad” mark, has now filed an application to trademark “iPad” in the United States as well. The application is dated January 16, and appears to have been posted to the US Patent and Trademark Office website today.

The application was filed under Filing Basis 1(b) and 44(d).  According to the USPTO website, Filing Basis 1(b) refers to the “bona fide intention to use a mark in commerce” and 44(b) refers to the “claim of priority, based on an earlier-filed foreign application.”  Looks like last week’s international filings were not only geared toward protecting the mark abroad, but were aimed at giving their U.S. filing a boost under 44(b).

The trademark application covers hundreds of goods and services including:  computers, books, games, and telecommunications.  Interestingly, one service being applied for “enables users to program the scheduling of audio, video, text and other multimedia content, including music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related programs as they will be aired”.

If IP Application Development LLC is not an Apple dummy company, they have a lot of similar thoughts about how an “iPad” computer might be used.

The Jesus Tablet continues to be convinced the revolutionary Apple tablet will be called the iPad, especially with the “bona fide intention to use the mark” associated with this filing.  For the record, we like Apple Canvas too, but don’t think it’s in the cards; and we just aren’t big fans of  iSlate/Slate, Tablet/iTablet, iBook and iNewt.

With the timing of this application so close to the big announcement (they almost snuck it in!), is there still room for doubt that it will be called iPad?  Could this be a last minute misdirection ploy by Apple?  Could another company be preemptively grabbing the name before Apple’s announcement?  Let the commenting begin…

Here is the filing:

SPECIAL BONUS- This alleged photo of the iPad just in:

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• Apple requests iPad trademark from Fujitsu (macworld.com) FPZMKAADCQE7

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