Robert Cringely provides some educated speculation on the possibility of an Apple Tablet.
Beyond the usual rumors of an Apple Tablet, Cringely notes an upcoming technology that may provide tablets the "killer app" they need to drive their adoption.
The upcoming IEEE standard known as 802.15.3 -- "a high data rate Personal Area Network with a range of about 10 meters" (According to this, it's 100 meters). This new technology will allow high quality video transmission wirelessly between devices. Early chips based on the new technology are reportedly scheduled to be released in January, a year ahead of the actual standardization... but Cringely believes that Apple will adopt them at this early stage.
- Watch TV in your bathroom, access your audio and video collection from anywhere in the house, control your big screen TV and route video to it from your desktop or the Internet. Take a dozen movies and your entire music collection with you on a trip. Strap the gizmo to the back of your car headrest and entertain the kids. Grab e-mail from a passing WiFi hotspot. Surf the web. Play video games. It will still cost too much, but a million early adopters won't care.
