While many speculate on the forthcoming Apple announcement, I was able to buttonhole Apple purchasing executive Hedley Lamar on a recent flight back from Taipei and got the facts. 

Ever heard of Balda AG? Chinese factories owned by this German firm make the touch sensitive modules which are fixed onto the iPhone’s LCD to make its innovative multi-touch control possible. It’s the key to Apple’s switch to a tough scratch-resistant glass screen.  That plus the Apple iTunes Is the key differentiator of the iSlate versus other Tablet computer products.  here is the base specs:

• Design and Software: Apple USA (natch!)
• Screen: 240 mm full multi-touch by Balda with 100% qwerty keyboard
• Assembly:  Quanta Taiwan at least initially
• Size: 250mm by 150mm by 15mm thick
• Weight: 1 kilo
• Chip: 1GHz Samsung custom Apple Chip
• Fast Start: 2GB Solid-state boot to OS
• Storage: 64GB solid-state
• Battery: 10-hour Li-ion polymer
• Case: Unibody aluminum similar to the newer MacBook
• OS: Slate OS 1.1.  This is a derivative of the iPhone OS
• Wireless: 802.11n, bluetooth AND ATT Edge Network air-card

Somewhere over the dateline and several scotches into the ride, Hedley explained that the key to the iSlate is really the end-to-end integration with the iTunes and Apps Stores so that the iSlate will largely be used as a media reader such as the Kindle.  He said major announcements will be made simultaneous to the product launch where publishers such as the New York Times will be pushing their content to “Slaps” which is, of course” iSlate Apps.  Wake up and read the NYT on fully HTML Safari based reader with links etc.  Content pricing will be dramatically lower than the Kindle, and free in most newspaper/magazine cases, as the media companies will be using their standard web add supported content.  Books will now be supported together with all the other iTunes content.

Now go do the voodoo you do so well.

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Every once in a while a break through comes and often its from the designers at Apple. The “Magic Mouse” is really novel and may end the Apple legacy of crappy mice. While achieving all the high Apple ID standards, they have raised the HCI bar by opening the door to new gestures which will be particularly helpful for faster web browsing. While the Magic Mouse is a typical wireless mouse consisting of batteries, laser tracker and a Bluetooth chip the secret sauce is the capacitive sensors surface capable of gestural input. Imagine the gestures you can use with an iPhone but now you can us them with your Magic Mouse.

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The Kindle is awesome but there could be a very disrupter on the horizon - Plastic Logic powered books.    There is a lot to love about the Kindle, the screen is easy on the eyes, access to a huge library and the battery life.  But it still lacks the tactile experience of a book.  That could now change with the introduction of E Ink from Plastic Logic which is a spin-off company from Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory and specializes in polymer transistors and electronics.

The principal product the company has developed is a flexible plastic electronic display the thickness of a credit-card.   The Plastic Logic approach solves the critical issue in manufacturing high resolution transistor arrays on flexible plastic substrates by using a low temperature process without mask alignment. The process, much simpler than conventional amorphous silicon processes, uses an eclectic mix of standard production equipment from display manufacturing and other industries.

You can see a demo of this very cool technology.  Later this year they will be announcing their eReader and publsiher platforms.  We think it will be a page turner!

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