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More Sources Point to a Touchscreen Apple Netbook in 2009

Dow Jones Newswire reports that Apple is indeed planning to launch a netbook computer with a touchscreen as soon as the 2nd half of this year. They cite "two people close to the situation" as sources.

The mini laptop computers will likely have monitor screens that are between 9.7-inches and 10-inches, one person, who declined to be named, said.


This adds credibility to yesterday's report that Apple had already placed orders for the screen with Taiwan-based Wintek.

Based on this new information, it appears that Apple is targeting a ~10" screen size for this Netbook. The addition of a multi-touch screen adds an interesting twist to the concept of a netbook which is traditionally a clamshell miniaturized laptop.

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38 months ago
Has to be a bigger iPhone and not a "book" computer... that's my prediction. A virtual KB just like the iPhone.
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38 months ago
In my view this would hit the sweet spot as it would be bigger than the iPhone thereby allowing Apple to leverage Cocoa touch within Mac OS X on a true computing device.

Looking forward to the eventual release of this product. Apple needs to enter this segment.
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38 months ago
I'm hopeing for a device around 7-8" for use in a car in-lieu of these over priced nav systems. I just have no clue how to deal with the stereo speakers.
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38 months ago
$499 or less and I am def there. I'd LOVE a small machine to take with me everywhere. Especially back and forth from my daily home-->work-->school routine. :)

Need for learning Cocoa Touch, increasing...
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38 months ago
Probably like the Jazz Mutant Lemur but in a 10" instead 12" so it won't compete with the mac books.

It will be fun for sure, if is fun people will find a use for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-LFoxMw1Sc
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38 months ago
Hey now. I just posted this in the first thread. Cool Stuff, huh?

Anyway, I said that my money is on this:



Truth be told, if it's good enough for me to do some real mobile work... (2ghz + 1gb ram) ... I'll buy that and a MacPro.
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38 months ago
very cool - my eyes aint what they used to be and the iphone 'for surfing' gives me headaches....
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38 months ago
let's hope it's not atom based before we get too excited! :D

I think if apple can make a sub £500 touch sensitive laptop with at least a 64Gb SSD that's got something along the lines of 2Ghz Core 2 Duo or equivalent low powered Core i7 processor, a decent amount of RAM, shared video or not, it would be an excellent little system and just as good value as the entry level white iBook. Mini USB 2.0 connectors, firewire 800

I can just imagine having something with a mega-wide 1280 x 692 display that's no wider than a small paperback but as thin as a DVD case.
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38 months ago

Has to be a bigger iPhone and not a "book" computer... that's my prediction. A virtual KB just like the iPhone.


A virtual KB would be the pits. It's fine for the iPhone, typing out quick URLs, SMS, etc. I would not want to use a virtual KB typing a report on Word/Pages or a spreadsheet on Excel/Numbers. That would be counter productive and a giant FAIL. PC Netbooks are capable of most ordinary desktop tasks. A Mac version needs to be just as capable. A virtual KB doesn't cut it, nor does having to schlep a separate USB KB around.

Separately, I wonder if this is why Safari 4 has tabs on top... on a small screen this saves screen space.
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38 months ago
If they don't price it into the stratosphere, I will definitely buy one. :D

Shortly thereafter, I will conduct a small, quiet retirement ceremony for my trusty little 12" Powerbook. :( Taps will be played.
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