Opinion: Is Apple working on an 'iPad Air'?

by Luke Edwards  |  Friday 16 December 2011
Opinion: Is Apple working on an 'iPad Air'?

The Cupertino tech giant could be planning to launch a convergence device to rival the Asus Transformer Prime.

The Apple iPad Air – bet it’s the fist time you’ve heard that name. That’s because it’s the first time it’s been used. Recent news stories have nodded towards its existence, and Apple’s latest acquisition of a flash memory company lends weight to the notion.

The iPad 3 has been at the heart of many a rumour, including its 2048x1536 Retina Display, which was also linked to the new MacBook Pro’s 2880x1800 Retina Display. But with news of a more powerful MacBook Air on the way, there may be no need for the MacBook Pro anymore.

Now Apple's bought a flash memory company for US$400 million , which further supports its goal of extending flash memory and doing away with spinning drives (and the MacBook Pro) altogether.

Now we’ve discovered an Apple patent that uses a completely new 3D knitted material to create strong but lightweight materials for components – namely a keyboard. Could this be the adjoining keyboard for the iPad Air that combines the iPad, Macbook Pro and MacBook Air in an almighty super gadget? 

Admittedly this combination of gadgets might not happen in the next generation of Apple devices, as the iPad 3, iTV, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air updates are imminent. But for Apple, the iPad Air seems like the next logical step to take. As the Asus Transformer Prime has already proved, there's an appetite for a single convergence device that brings together the laptop and the tablet. Now it's time for Apple to wow us with the iOS version.

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See more about:  apple  |  ipad  |  air  |  macbook  |  pro  |  ipad  |  mobilecomputing
 
 

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Comments: 16
cootified
16 December 2011
 LOL. This wont happen.
Apple just wants a screen for all their devices eventually.



Comment made about the PC & Tech Authority article:
Opinion: Is Apple working on an 'iPad Air'??
The Cupertino tech giant could be planning to launch a convergence device to rival the Asus Transformer Prime.

What do you think? Join the discussion.
photohounds
16 December 2011
 No, they won't EVER "slavishly copy" (their term for "make something even remotely similar to") the ideas of others.

They are the only innovative computer company - rememeber?

There's no shortage of other people's ideas to BUY (or emulate) ... a decades old Cupertino tradition!
odysseus
18 December 2011
 Odds that Asus has patented the docking keyboard??
amcmo
19 December 2011
 Actually, Apple have had a docking keyboard since iPad1.

Who's copying who?

I'll grant ASUS have taken the concept to a whole new level.
photohounds
29 March 2012
 I think lapatop docks (mate your machine to the big screen and network) have existed for years, so apple can claim NO 'idea' here, just copy and adapt an older idea which is what ASUS did.

Agree, AM: ASUS took it to another level entirely using it as that impenetrable-looking clam-shell screen protector layer in one fell swoop.

ASUS are now the one to be imitated - someone will push it a little further - a VB holder for Ruby maybe?

:)

Edited by photohounds: 29/3/2012 06:35:33 PM
rubaiyat
29 March 2012
 For heavens sake photo. Just shut up!

I'm sure you've long been added to the boring, repetitive, inane, tedious, etc entries in Roget's Thesaurus.
photohounds
29 March 2012
 FACT is, the ASUS implementation is the cleverest so far.

It is your comment that fits the above description, not mine.

Edited by photohounds: 29/3/2012 06:33:45 PM
rubaiyat
29 March 2012
 photo You incessantly make up a totally fictitious Apple and then argue with it.

Somewhere in the multiverse you occupy, you are a clown made out of candy.

Unfortunately it is this one.
rubaiyat
29 March 2012
 Can anyone find any references that precede the PowerBook Duo docks back in 1992?

Interestingly enough the PowerBook Duo was designed very much on the minimalist lines of the current Ultrabooks and achieved a similar weight. I remember Apple however made a couple of design mistakes. Chiefly it made the docks as complete wrap around envelopes, so when they brought out the colour PowerBook Duo which required a deeper screen it no longer fitted the old dock and required a new one.

It stuck in my mind as a really dumb slip up and one of many the management of the time demonstrated.
photohounds
29 March 2012
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptop - in principle IBM precede by a DECADE. Clown, Candy? Yeah whatever.
rubaiyat
30 March 2012
 Useless link photo which I had already scanned. You have shown nothing (typically) to substantiate your claim that IBM preceded by a decade.

All it says is docks were available "in the early 1990's", well the PowerBook Duo was 1992. The question is, was it the first?

I remember HP had better designed docks, in fact they pretty well hit them on the head, but that was much later, around 1998.

I can find no record of anything earlier than the PowerBook Duo docks, but neither can I find any records of them being a "first".

Edited by rubaiyat: 30/3/2012 02:51:55 PM
photohounds
30 March 2012
 The IBM ones were made in fairly (for the time) - large numbers. Here's their first 'portable' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m54rKlErwA - ah 1975 and everyone else followed - even GM!

... Then the 5155 (I just sold one) in 1984. Everyone else excepting compaq were relatively niche products. I always thought it resembled a sewing machine in a case.


Some 'innovators' didn't copy (er 'invent') portable computers until 1989. Of course having actually invented something (RAM, Hard disks) IBM actually did seminal work, rather than retro-invent) the work of others. Hardware MAKERS have been leap-frogging each other ever since.


Back in 2012 and there's chaos among the anointed ... you can get yourself a case of toasted skin syndrome, while grumbling about a lack of claimed 4G ans a dickey battery indicator.

If an Android supplier were so deceptive/lazy in the design/marketing of a computerised toaster, they would deserve a kick in the gonads too ...

Enough frivolity, back to the book.
rubaiyat
1 April 2012
 What on earth are you talking about photo?

This was all about docks.

You really have trouble focusing and clearly following most anything.
photohounds
1 April 2012
 Yep ... I did digress, but it's newsworthy ... http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/03/apples-history-of-contempt-for-aussie-consumers/

Maybe they think we're in Austria ...
rubaiyat
2 April 2012
photohounds wrote:
If an Android supplier were so deceptive/lazy in the design/marketing of a computerised toaster...


...no-one would notice.
Jefferyr
2 April 2012
 Yes, the new MacBook Air looks very nice, but its really nothing more than an iPad with a keyboard and a trackpad. :-({|=
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