Rumor Roundup

I want a NEWTON!! PLEASE!!!

Guy

how about a Newton running NOSX (made up mini-OSX) which runs iTunes?

I would love to get a post-Newton-PDA that connects wirelessly via an airport base station, features MP3 playback, works as a digital camera, has a mobile phone built in and so on...

The supercomputer miniturized!!!

I cannot wait to see it with my own eyes tomorrow on http://www.apple.com!!!

Later,
Greco

This device may or may not be an 'iPod', but the word 'iPod' has definitely been registered within the last week or two. A look at the trademark details revealed at ATMOSS (Australian Trade Mark Online Search System) might shed some light on what this 'iThing' is.

A few key words from the trademark list: "electronic handheld devices for the wireless receipt and/or transmission of data, particularly messages, and devices that enable the user to keep track of or manage personal information; character recognition software; apparatus for recording, transmission and reproduction of sounds; telephones..."

The list goes on and on (and on) and some of the elements in the list make for interesting reading/thinking. Yes, perhaps we've seen all these things before, but AS SEPARATE DEVICES. Apple's strength lies in revisiting previously bungled concepts and wrapping them up in a package that not only works, but is easy to use.

Imagine a PDA that connects wirelessly to your lap/desktop and is always synch'ing between the two so that both machines remain synchronised, it does all of this wirelessly and intelligently.

It is essentially an easy-to-carry extension of your main hub/computer, i.e. the computer is the hub, not this new device. This device is an extension of your data-hub that allows you to be un-tethered from a sill-fairly-heavy-to-carry-around laptop.

It is a phone, a PDA, an .mp3 player, a data-hub all rolled into one. It's the 'rolling into one' bit that is the breakthrough/groundbreaking bit.

Consider this scenario: Every morning I pack my bag to go to work, into it I put: a G3 laptop, a Palm, a CD player, a mobile phone and a few magazines, etc. It is HEAVY and everything RUNS OUT OF BATTERIES all the time because I can never remember what needs re-charged. I get on the bus and I can't decide: do I want to work on my laptop, read the news on my Palm or just listen to my stereo?

Now consider this alternative scenario: Every morning I pack my bag to go to work, into it I put: one iPod. It has everything on it, it is LIGHT and it DOESN'T RUN OUT OF BATTERIES all the time because I can manage to get my brain to remember to recharge it (and only it) every night.

I'd buy this, no question. If only to save my poor brain from the nightmare of packing my bag every morning.

Trademark details follow to save you looking at the above link...

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ATMOSS - Australian Trade Mark Online Search System

Word: IPOD

Lodgement Date: 02-OCT-2001

Class/es: 9, 28, 38

From the information I reacon we are going to see somekind of a "PDA"

JUST NAME IT NEWTON!!! PLEASE!!!

Guy

Handspring announced the "Treo" to compete with the Blackberry. I almost thought this would be my purchase to replace my cell phone & Visor Platinum.

If Apple releases anything like this, I know where my money is going. Thank God they may release soon as I was about to drop $400 on the Treo.

Apple, oh Apple, shake the world tomorrow!!

Macosrumors reports:

According to reliable Infinite Loop sources, Apple's groundbreaking new Digital Hub device will employ at least two of Apple's most secret technology projects that we have speculated on for some time. Notably, Apple's purchase last year of Raycer Graphics, a company that creates GPUs (Graphics Processor Units) for embedded and handheld applications is apparently key to this and several other of Apple's forthcoming Digital Hub devices. Low-cost, low-power graphics for this device will reportedly be provided by a GPU unit that may be embedded within a larger System-On-A-Chip architecture that will be at the core of the device we're expecting on Tuesday as well as future Digital Hub products from Apple.

Additionally, Apple has been working on handwriting recognition/pen-input technology called InkWell and a new, high-performance version of Firewire (IEEE 1394b) that will be called Gigawire. Neither of these latter technologies is confirmed to be employed in the device we'll be seeing on Tuesday, but both are key to the Digital Hub strategy and will be heard much more about in the not-so-distant future.

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Damn, I am so excited about this. If it's even 1/2 of what we think... Apple is about to get a big infuse of $$$. And I'll be among the first to run to the Apple Store and slap down the plastic!

Considering:

1. Apple still has the best operating system for handhelds (NOS)
2. Apple still has the best HWR
3. Steve Jobs is always liked Sony which gained the required momentum to be a giant selling walkmans.
4. Current handhelds are ill-to-use and need a better screen (which is not possible in the frames of current size-factor) and better HWR (Apple has one)
5. Current wearables are ill devices, trying to be the handheld and the PC at the same time.

I'll bet on wearable computer, that has:
1. one-eye gogge, one can see through.
2. Eye-movement recognising input for surfing and reading (as some Canon cameras have)
3. Text input as normal PDA-s
4. some kind of the low-powered Airport connection
5. expandability
6. simulates palmOS if needed

I read on another board that Apple was making a PS2 emulator. Maybee it is a portable wireless PS2 emulator....that is a cell phone....and a PDA.....and an MP3 player....with handwriting recognition....with a base station that is the cube.

Hi

I have just been told my Cancom UK (prev MacZone) that it would be useful for me at home, but no use to me at work. :(

I WANNA A PDA CALLED A NEWTON!!!

Guy

I'm looking again at the trademark overview/list above and the following looks extremely compelling:

"...software for the redirection of messages, Internet e-mail, and/or other data to one or more electronic handheld devices from a data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server; and software for the synchronization of data between a remote station or device and a fixed or remote station or device..."

The concept that your existing computer is your hub and that this (or some soon-to-be-revealed) device uses a combination of push/pull via AirPort to keep things synchronised is extremely compelling, but exists already - to a degree - with the current Mac/Palm set up. The question is: what more will this offer?

Perhaps it's an expanded-but-still-portable PDA? Imagine a device that allows you to surf the web/listen to music/write emails/etc. from you lounge while your TiBook re-charges in the dining room/studio.

Airport is compelling precisely because it renders your (T)iBook wireless, but how often has anyone been working happily away in the lounge when the following dreaded alert hits:

"Your PowerBook is running low on batteries, you have 10 seconds before you need to abandon wireless working and plug a power lead in or lose all your work..."

That's hardly working wirelessly, so - thinking differently - what's the solution to this problem...