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Apple Tablet: A Deep Dive Look Into the Likely Tech Inside

Jason Cross — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:37:01 -0500

Illustration: Adam Benton

Depending on which “insider information” you choose to believe, Apple is going to release a tablet device any time between now and spring 2010. Though the online rumor mill can’t be relied on to give accurate information, the arrival of a tablet device any day now seems like a foregone conclusion. What would such a device look like? What hardware would be inside? We haven’t yet successfully planted a mole in Steve Jobs’ inner circle, but we can make a few fact-based guesses about an Apple tablet’s key specs.

The hardware in an Apple tablet--let’s call it the iTablet--would follow from the target price and anticipated software features. Let’s start there. Apple already owns the market for notebooks costing more than $1,000, but that’s a small piece of the portable computing pie. The iPhone, meanwhile, is cleaning up in the smartphone category. What Apple needs is a computing device more robust than the iPhone, but cheaper and more portable than a Macbook.

With the rising popularity of “netbook” PCs ranging from $299 to $499, the public clearly wants a cheap, lightweight computer to do a little Web surfing and email checking on the go. A $699 to $799 price point seems likely for the iTablet, possibly cheaper if bought in conjunction with a wireless data plan (from an “exclusive carrier,” naturally). As for snazzy entertainment features, expect Apple to focus on rich media, from the rumored “Cocktail” project that introduces multi-dimensional, interactive albums to iTunes, to HD-quality video and games (ever the most popular software category on the iPhone).

Keyboard stays Soft.

Don’t expect a built-in physical keyboard, but rather an improved multitouch virtual keyboard optimized for a larger screen. Web browsing? As good as the iPhone’s browser is for a smartphone, it’s still much easier to read a webpage on a bigger screen, and the iPhone doesn’t do Flash. So expect an iTablet version of Safari, which could have tabs, support Flash, and give you a lot more viewing area, so you don’t have to zoom in on and pan around pages.

iTunes on the iTablet could look and feel almost exactly like the version on your Mac. And while you wouldn’t want to write the next Great Novel on a tablet, composing an email or posting to an online forum would be a lot faster and easier with a large multitouch keyboard. E-books are a natural fit with a screen this size, as well—ever try reading one on your iPhone? Imagine swiping your finger to turn pages, dog-earing with a flick of the screen corner, and visual bookmarks that look like, well, bookmarks. You’re not going to pull out your MacBook to read Tom Sawyer on the subway, after all.

All rumors point to a 9- to 10-inch screen, which seems perfectly vreasonable. To get an idea of the size, take a Kindle and remove all those buttons and borders, instead making nearly the entire front of the device a color touchscreen. Knowing Apple, this thing has to be light and beautiful, with a minimum of physical buttons.

Illustration: Adam Benton - Click to embiggen

Input/Output.

Don’t expect to see all the ports you find on a notebook, but we wouldn’t be shocked to find a mini-HDMI port for sending video to your high-def TV, or perhaps an SD or micro-SD card slot for removable storage, and a standard 30-pin connector for syncing, docking, and charging.

While we would love the improved quality and battery life of an OLED screen, we just don’t see it happening on the iTablet. OLED screens at this size are far too expensive. As a result, the iTablet will likely have an LCD, perhaps using LED edge lighting, with a resolution that Apple can market as “HD” (perhaps 1280x800 like the MacBook, or 1280x720 for native 720p). LED edge lighting (showing up in some new HDTVs) is like the LED-backlit screen on a MacBook Pro, only instead of an array of white LEDs behind the screen, you have rows along the edges shining toward the center of the screen, and a special film to reflect the light outward. The result is a thinner, more energy-efficient display.

Certain hardware features of the iPhone 3GS are a shoo-in for the iTablet. GPS? Check. Wi-Fi? Check. Accelerometer? Check. The digital compass will probably be there as well. While this is too large a device to take photos with, a front-facing camera for video chat is a distinct possibility. Despite the similarities to the iPhone, we don’t expect the device to make phone calls—at least, not without a VOIP application like Skype. Bluetooth is iffy for this reason. It might be included only if the radio chip Apple chooses happens to support it. Then again, since we don’t expect Apple to add a USB port (to maintain the iTablet’s thinness), Bluetooth might offer the only way to hook up to a physical keyboard.

For wireless Internet, some form of 3G connectivity is likely, especially if the device does end up being sold through an exclusive carrier with mandatory data contracts to keep the sticker price down, as the iPhone is. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a faster 3G implementation, perhaps HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access). As for the rumors of a 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology that all the carriers plan to offer someday, the track record of on-time rollouts for new cell technology is abysmal, and market penetration will be spotty for a long time. Plus, when has Apple ever been the first to jump on a new technology standard? It would be great if true, as LTE 4G technology could genuinely be called “mobile broadband.” Speeds should be 10 to 50 times faster than 3G, and latencies greatly reduced, but it’s a nascent technology, and likely to be expensive and power-draining at first.

NEXT: Modified OS X for the Win.

Modified OS X for the Win.

Will the iTablet run OS X? Yes. Sort of. Apple claims the iPhone runs OS X, after all, though that device certainly can’t run the same applications you run on your Mac. We think the iTablet will more likely run a souped-up version of the iPhone OS, still centered around multitouch and downloadable apps from the App Store. If the processor architecture is right, it might even run actual iPhone apps. Still, you should expect custom applications that take advantage of the larger screen, along with plenty of interface changes. (Can you imagine a 10-inch screen peppered with tiny iPhone app icons?)

We’d be shocked if the iTablet didn’t include a more full-featured iTunes store built in. In fact, Apple should probably change its name to iStore or iMedia, because “Tunes” is going to be an even less accurate descriptor of a store that already sells music, movies/TV, and applications, especially when you tack on natural iTablet material, like books.

Guts and Glory.

The million-dollar question is what sort of hardware will serve as the guts of the iTablet. Intel’s Atom CPU, while very energy efficient, may still be too battery-draining for Apple. Not to mention the fact that the iPhone’s OS, which the tablet will likely use a variant of, is already well optimized for the ARM architecture. This, plus potential backward compatibility with iPhone/iPod Touch apps, is enough reason for Apple to choose a system-on-chip (SOC) that uses the ARM core and PowerVR-based graphics (all iPhones and iPod Touches employ Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR designs for 3D graphics acceleration). This could be a chip courtesy of Apple-acquired PA Semiconductor or something off the shelf.

The ARM Cortex-A9 multicore CPU seems like a good choice. It’s very similar to the CPU in the iPhone 3GS, only with more cores. Together with the inevitable larger battery, Apple could provide the true multitasking the iPhone lacks. Another great possibility is Nvidia’s Tegra SOC, which pairs an ARM 11 core similar to the one in the original iPhone with very impressive and power-efficient 3D graphics and HD video processing. We’d be disappointed if the iTablet didn’t have more RAM than the iPhone 3GS’s 256MB, but more than 512MB sounds too expensive. For storage, it would have to start at 32GB of flash and go up from there, with a 64GB option for $100 more.

So what does the total picture look like? Basically, a 9- or 10-inch iPhone with an interface and applications customized for a larger screen. Most of the same radio and other hardware features are there, and maybe even some added extras like a mini-HDMI jack and front-facing video camera. The CPU is similar to that of the iPhone 3GS, only more powerful, thanks in part to the larger battery. All this allows for true multitasking. Still, it’s distinctly not just a MacBook minus the keyboard. Whatever the hardware turns out to be, you can bet the real attraction will be new software features and services.

iTablet 1.0 

Illustration: Adam Benton

In June 2008, we conceptualized this Mac tablet based on patents Apple filed between 2004 and 2008 ("Inside Apple R&D -- Apple Patents Realized"). We guessed we might see such a device in 2010. We don’t know if we got the look right, but we were pretty right on about the release date, if we do say so ourselves.

Apple Hardware Prototypes: Four Radical New Concepts Revealed

Jon Phillips — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:15:05 -0600

Take yourself back to 2001. Digital audio players were nothing more than nichey gadgets bopping around the periphery of the consumer-electronics market. Then came the dynamo we now simply call “the classic,” and in a flash, both digital music and Apple’s repute as a hardware company achieved something close to metacultural transcendence.

The iPod gave its owners a fashion statement, a design icon, a mark of cultural literacy. It became a synonym for all portable music players and turned even the most clueless consumers into knowing technophiles. Even the iPod’s essential design—soft, white, and devoid of busy interface elements—made a powerful new statement about consumer-electronic aesthetics. The follow-up to the iPod would have to be equally magnificent. The world expected nothing less than another category-creating piece of lifestyle gear.

Apple didn’t let us down. Last year the company gave us the iPhone, and within a single news cycle, the definitions of smartphones, cell phones, audio players, video players, and even GUIs were rewritten. Rewritten, combined, pushed, pulled, exploded, congealed, and totally turned on end.

But what comes next? Apple now finds itself in the enviable position of trying to top its latest mass-market phenomenon. We don’t know what Steve Jobs is preparing to pull from his jeans pocket at the next Mac Expo, but we must assume his R&D teams are working on something very, very cool.

Just for fun, we challenged ourselves to conceive four new product directions for Apple Almighty. Our parameters were twofold: First, our imaginary products would have to be technically feasible (kinda, sorta), and, second, they would have to represent a trip into uncharted territory—either a new product category or consumer demographic. On the following pages you’ll find the fruits of our fanciful, fictitious, faux R&D. Our prototypes, we hope, will leave you thoroughly delighted.

See related design contest.

Squidget

It’s addictive, inexpensive, and blingfully customizable. Meet Apple’s flamboyant first foray into the tweenager market.

Just like the widgets that populate our Dashboards, the Squidget is compact, lightweight, and imminently useful for very specific tasks. It’s also got all the visual energy of a Skittles party on happy dust, making it an extension of Apple’s move toward wilder colors and ever-more-canny form factors. Aimed squarely at the iChat demographic, the chameleonlike Squidget includes a select menu of iPhone apps and costs just $129, making it a communication/entertainment gadget that 8- to 14-year-olds could plausibly afford.

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1. Expect to see Apple partner up with the elite fashion houses. The plaid stripes of this special-edition Burberry model flow seamlessly from the video wallpaper to the glossy shell. Even the perimeter lighting displays the Burberry palette.

2. Apple revamps its Squidget shells in new colors, patterns, and finishes twice a year, creating a style line that evolves as quickly as teen couture.

3. On Squidget-optimized MySpace home pages, your friends can check out your playlists and uploaded photos, and even install your customized identity theme, which kicks into action whenever you initiate a chat session. Like a “push ringer” on steroids, your photo pops up on your pal’s screen, and his spaz lighting begins blinking out your name in Morse code.

4. The three function buttons on the inside can be assigned various contextual tasks, but one must always be your Home button, lest navigation become wonky. Squidget games, optimized by developers just for Apple, make liberal use of these three physical keys.

5. With a diameter of 2.2 inches, the Squidget is a tad narrower than the iPhone. You can stuff it in your pocket, wear it like a wristwatch, or rock it around your neck, Flavor Flav style.

Squidget communication is firmly rooted in the world of alphanumerics—instant messaging over Wi-Fi and text messaging over a cell network. Swivel the outer disc and you’ll find an inexpensive monochrome LCD displaying a touch keyboard. Once you’ve finished getting your dish on, you can surf the Web, or download music and Squidget-exclusive games directly from iTunes. With just 1GB of solid-state memory, there’s no room for a large iTunes collection, but the $12.99 all-you-can-text monthly service plan includes “pushed” songs in your favorite genres. The tracks appear magically in a bucket of dedicated memory, and you can listen to them for free for 72 hours before they disappear. Should you decide to transfer a song to permanent memory, you pay just 75 cents per track (a nifty price break for the Squidget Nation).

Using a next-gen version of Toshiba’s just-announced circular LCD technology, the Squidget can display custom wallpapers—either static images or video screen savers—that cover nearly the entire surface of the upper lid. But the truly killer personalization feature is Squidget Public Alert System Lighting (aka “spaz lighting”): The entire perimeter of the device is ringed with a light strip that can be programmed to blink out codes in different colors, locations, and durations. Magenta lights chasing each other around the perimeter might mean your girlfriend wants to chat. Yellow lights rapidly blinking on and off could signal that your mom wants you home for dinner.

And dark blue lights that just pulse slowly, on and off? That’s your signal to the world that you’re in the depths of teen angst, and disturbing you now would be a very bad idea.

iEye

Seriously—how long did you think Apple would wait before launching the ultimate camera?

What Apple did for music via the iPod, and smartphones via the iPhone, it now does for photography and video. The iEye is the ultimate mobile device for capturing, editing, and distributing all of your iLife memories. In a slim, sleek, easy-to-use package, the iEye records stills and video, all in high definition. Just shoot a bunch of content and then use the multi-touch interface to explore your creative chakras anytime, anywhere.

Click to enlarge

1. A camera just wouldn’t be a camera if it didn’t have a shutter button. The iEye’s single button also serves as a Home button, easing navigation regardless of which menu you’re in.

2. The physical dimensions of the iEye are pretty much identical to those of the iPhone, give or take a few smidgens. Notice, however, the larger swath of screen real estate. The extra room is appreciated during content editing. When you’re in recording mode, the display orientation corrects itself as you transition from landscape to portrait shooting. Oh, but of course.

3. The iEye product line offers optics, resolutions, and capacities for every price range. The sweet spot of the line, however, represents a bounty of features for just $499: 720p HD video, 5.1-megapixel stills, 12GB of flash memory, and a large-capacity lithium-ion battery hardwired inside. Optical zoom is limited to 3x because Apple wanted a lens that would be flush with the iEye’s surface when fully extended. Lens cap, you ask? Third-party developers will be creating all-encompassing “iEye Tents” by the dozens!

4. The 30-pin connector makes a comeback. Dock your iEye to transfer files or just power up the battery.

Our little doble ojo (which we suspect will be nicknamed “ai-yai-yai!”) includes lite versions of iPhoto and iMovie. By pinching and tapping the camera’s touchscreen, you can mash all your memories together with the simple editing software you’ve come to know so well. You can also grab titles, transitions, borders, and music from built-in theme libraries, creating slideshows and movies that are almost disarming in their polish and finesse. And don’t worry about growing tired of the built-in themes, because iEye users can create their own custom template material and share it online.

Your iEye projects can be packaged and transferred to your Mac for final editing—but that’s only necessary if you want to go full-tilt Ken Burns or Jim Jarmusch on what you’ve created. We think most users will tap into the onboard wireless protocols (Wi-Fi and 3G) to send their masterpieces to friends or to post them to a .Mac account.

Besides adding legitimate, no-excuses content editing to a dual-purpose handheld camera, the iEye simplifies—perfects, actually—the onscreen UIs that leave most digital camera users crying for help from more tech-savvy friends (or people who actually read the manuals). The iEye control menus are easy to access and even easier to understand. It’s inevitable that Apple would try its hand in the digital camera/camcorder space, especially when so many competing products have been screaming for the new multi-touch UI. Throw in mobile versions of iPhoto and iMovie, and you have a handheld wonder that epitomizes Apple’s “create, share, enjoy” mantra.

iProtection

A postmodern response to the existential threats of urban living.

Sure, you chuckle now. But in 10 years’ time—when the polar caps have melted and wild dogs are roaming the streets—you’ll be glad Apple had the foresight to develop iProtection. This pocket-sized mobile security system is the world’s first hip and mainstream personal safety device. Who says your descent into full-tilt paranoia need not be fun? Music might be your boyfriend, but the arc of an 800,000-volt stun gun is your biker-looking uncle who lets you shoot guns in the backyard.

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1. A perfectly cylindrical iProtection baton might roll away if dropped. That’s why our design includes a single flat face.

2. Releasing the stun gun button resets the biometric safety, ensuring that your iProtection can’t easily be used against you (should, God forbid, the worst occur)

3. You’ll be interested to know that iProtection doesn’t carry any version of iTunes and can’t play any type of media downloaded from the Internet. (The soundtrack of postmodern paranoia can be heard in the wind.)

Identification, illumination, and electrification are the cornerstones of iProtection safety. If you sense an assault is imminent, you can activate a piercing, 120-decibel alarm siren that immediately identifies the locus of your trouble. A built-in GPS tracker further identifies your whereabouts—as soon as you hit the alarm (which also includes a silent mode), a distress signal sends your coordinates to local law enforcement. The GPS also includes a real-time display, which is perfect for calling in updates of your exact location should you ever find yourself stuffed in the trunk of a moving car, your iPhone conveniently within reach.

Naturally, the iProtection system includes a high-intensity LED flashlight. Your acts of urban payback will be nothing if not well lit. All of which leads us to the baton’s offensive component, an 800,000-volt stun gun with a three-stage safety trigger. Press the trigger once, and a biometric sensor immediately recognizes the thumbprint as yours, unlocking the safety toggle. Press the button a second time to arm the stun gun; the electrodes will rise from the baton’s surface. Press the button a third time and iProtection issues a nasty electrical discharge. Your assailant would not want to be mocking your choice of iPod colors right about now.

iCar

Sleek on the outside, clever on the inside, the Audi-Apple iCar is TT-terrific.

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You knew it had to happen. In a world where Apple’s industriousness compels us to envision an “i” preceding everything of material value, we cannot move forward without first considering an iCar. In late August, bloggers began reporting that Apple and Volkswagen were working on a partnership, so we fast-tracked our iCar concept for a grand unveiling in this month’s issue. You were expecting an Apple-fied VW Beetle or Jetta? Sorry, we don’t see it happening. The Beetle is too femme, and the Jetta, well... We look deep into its headlights and find no soul.

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So Volkswagen must turn to its Audi brand to launch the iCar, tapping the TT Coupe, which made an almost Apple-like design statement of its own when it launched in 1998. The iCar concept retains all the lines of the latest TT, but adds some coy exterior features that leave no ambiguity about Audi’s gene-splicing experiments with Apple DNA. The body, wheels, and brake calipers are painted iPod white, while the side skirts and front splitter are clad in iPod chrome. The TT’s side mirrors are simplified into half-spheres, giving this one-off design study an extra touch of round-edged-ness and symmetry. And because we’ve always wanted to see the G5 grille protecting a car’s radiator, we did exactly what you’ve been thinking about doing since 2003.

Form always follows function in the world of iDesign, so when folks pay the extra $3,800 for the iCar option package, they also get cockpit controls that broadcast “I am the car of the future!” to anyone lucky enough to slide into the leather front seat.

iCar. This is it. We can now move forward in the growing world of iDesign with closure, confidence, and peace of mind.

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The iCar cockpit redefines how we interface with traditional automotive controls. The tach/speedo cluster is an LCD that can be customized using the center console’s Settings menu. Whether you want numerical readouts or a traditional analog look and feel, the choice is yours, with skins and color options galore. The speedo here is set to display a large number for whatever 10 mph speed threshold you’ve just passed. The orange line is a visual of your current speed, while the red line is your own user-defined nanny marker—when orange passes red, you know you’ve surpassed your comfort limit.

The steering wheel features two scrollwheels so you can thumb through menu choices without using the touchscreen in the center console. There’s also an iSight located in the steering wheel hub, so that your iChat AV buddies can see you during calls on the road. (Wireless data networks of the future will make all this happen!) To help eliminate accidents caused by iChat AV convos, your friends can see what you see when you’re driving (notice the inset of your road view on the center display). This way, when you’re trying make a left-hand turn in rush-hour traffic, they’ll see what you’re doing and shut the heck up.

Controls for music, driving directions, communication, and climate are all accessed via the center touchscreen. iPhones and iPods nestle snugly in their very own dock. Once you experience this state-of-the-art UI, you’ll never be able to drive old-school again.